The Fire's Illusion
by ProjectMischa
Summary: Being Captain America's adoptive sister is a whole lot more hectic than most would think. It may be partially my fault that it is so chaotic, but I just can't resist sneaking into things that I was left out of! My most recent scheme probably got me into more trouble than I had anticipated... Rated M for safety and uncertainty on future chapters.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey everyone! This is my first Fanfiction on here, so I'm a little bit new to this. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC Robin.**

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I glared with burning eyes at the dark man in the glass cage. Every time I looked at him, I brimmed with disgust. Those cold eyes, his arrogant smile, and the way he held himself as if he was better than anyone else. I narrowed my eyes one last time before the image on the screen vanished. My thoughts were scattered as a voice echoed in the room, "So, what do you think of our new prisoner, Robin?"

I looked up to a woman with short, curly red hair and grumbled, "I hate him already, Tash. Can I please kill him?"

Natasha Romanoff, better known as Black Widow, laughed slightly and replied, "Sorry, Rob, not quite yet. We still need him alive so we can find the Tesseract. After that, he's all yours, though I don't think Thor would let you kill his brother. . ."

"They're not even real siblings, though!"

"Neither are you and Steve."

I paused for a moment, and then sighed, "True. . ."

Natasha looked at me in thought, and then replied, "In fact . . . their case isn't that different from you and Steve. . ."

"It's completely different!" I cried, "For one thing, I don't hate Steve. He may irritate me sometimes but. . ." my voice quieted, "but I . . . I don't hate him. . ."

Natasha nodded and we stood in silence for a while before she spoke up, "Oh, by the way, you're needed upstairs."

I blinked in confusion, "What for?"

"Fury wants to meet with all of us to discuss what do to about Loki, and how to figure out what he's planning."

I grimaced at the mention of his name. Loki, our current prisoner, and the reason my brother and I were dragged into this mess. Couldn't I, just for once, live a somewhat normal life? I nodded at Natasha and followed her upstairs.

Once we reached the control room, I stopped and stood by my brother, who was sitting at a table with a few other people Fury called in. "So . . . where's Mad-Eye Moody?" I asked with a grin. Because of Fury's eye patch, I always called him Mad-Eye Moody behind his back.

Natasha chuckled slightly and replied, "Right now, he's talking to Loki."

"Now that should be interesting! Turn on the cameras! I wanna see this!"

Natasha laughed and complied as I plopped down in a seat next to a geeky looking man called Bruce Banner. He may have looked wimpy at the moment, but when provoked, he turned into a big, green, fighting machine. I looked at the table as an image appeared on it. Before I knew it, everyone at the table had a small picture of what was happening in the prison room.

Fury stopped by a control panel and started pushing some buttons, probably entering a combination. "In case it's unclear . . . you try to escape, you so much as scratch that glass . . ." A large hole opened up underneath Loki's cage. "Thirty thousand feet straight down in a steel trap." He shut the machine off, "You get how that works?" He gestured first at Loki, and then at the control board, "Ant. Boot."

Loki chuckled and slowly stepped back into the center of the cage, grinning that arrogant smirk that irked me so much. "It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me."

"Built for something a lot stronger than you."

"Oh, I've heard," he looked at the camera, "the mindless beast, makes play to be the man."

I glanced at Bruce, who seemed more amused than anything else, and mouthed the words, "How did he know that?" Bruce only shrugged and we both turned our attention back to the screen.

"How desperate are you?" Loki continued, "You call upon these lost creatures to defend you."

"How desperate am I?" Fury repeated, "You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control. You talk about peace and you kill cause it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."

"Ooh. It burns you to have come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power. And for what?" Loki glanced at the camera again in amusement, "A warm light for all mankind to share? And then only to be reminded what real power is."

Fury chuckled slightly and walked away, "Well, let me know if 'real power' wants a magazine or something."

As the screen turned off, Bruce chuckled, "He really grows on you, doesn't he?"

I looked at him and laughed, "Ha, ha . . . no."

Another man laughed and glanced at me, "Not a fan of Reindeer Games?"

I chuckled and shook my head, "No, not in particular. . ." I grinned at him.

My brother, Steve, glanced at him, a bit confused, "Reindeer Games, Stark?"

Tony Stark, the genius millionaire, as he calls himself, chuckled, "Yeah, cause of the shape of his helmet. . ."

"I'd say it looks more like a cockroach than a reindeer," I inputted with a cheeky grin.

Tony laughed and gave me a high-five, "You're right, it kind of does!"

Steve chuckled a bit before getting back on target, "Loki's gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?"

A strong man with a deep baritone voice answered his question, "He has an army called the Chitauri, not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth, in return, I suspect, for the Tesseract."

"An army, from outer space," Steve said, almost in disbelief.

"So he's building another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvig for," Bruce inputted.

Thor looked to Bruce, "Selvig?"

"He's an astrophysicist."

"He's a friend."

Natasha joined in on the conversation, "Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours. . ."

"I wanna know why Loki let us take him," Steve said, "He's not leading an army from here."

"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki," Bruce pointed out, "That guy's brain is a bag full of cats, you could smell crazy on him!"

I snickered and was about to reply before Thor cut in, "I don't care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he's my brother."

Natasha looked up at Thor and said bluntly, "He killed eighty people in two days."

". . . He's adopted. . ."

"It doesn't matter if he's adopted or not, it's his own damn fault that those people died!" I butted in.

We sat there in silence, except for Bruce and Stark, who were speaking scientific terms that I couldn't quite understand before Fury reached the control room and stood in front of the table. "Well, now that we've got our prisoner, we are well on our way to be preparing for an attack. We'll need someone to interrogate Loki. . ."

_Well, there's no way in hell _I'll _do that! _I slowly tried to sneak away so that I wouldn't get called on.

"Robin, you can do that." I heard Fury say.

I turned around, completely baffled, "WHAT?!" _Dammit! I almost got away, too!_

Fury stared at me with his stern eye, "You heard me."

"I am sorry, sir, but I do not think I'm qualified for the job. I mean, I can't even stand looking at him!"

"You're still going to do it. You've done nothing your entire time here, aside from stealing things."

"That reminds me," Steve inputted, "I'd like my wallet back."

I grumbled a bit, fishing into my pockets before taking out a brown wallet and tossing it to Steve. "Here you go! Ha, ha, old habits die hard, you know?" I looked to Fury and sighed, "Oh, all right, but don't blame me if I scorch his face or something."

Fury raised an eyebrow, "That's what the cameras are for, to make sure _you_ don't do something stupid."

I nodded, "Understood, sir. . ."

Fury nodded and looked to the others, "Dr. Banner is only here to locate the Tesseract. I was hoping you could join him, Stark."

"Let's start with that stick of his," Steve suggested, "It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a Hydra weapon." I paled slightly at the mention of Hydra. That organization had given me more trouble and more pain than I could count. I glanced at Steve, he still didn't know of my true origins . . . perhaps it was better that way.

"I don't know about that," Fury said, "but it is powered by the cube. And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."

Thor blinked in confusion, "Monkeys? I do not understand. . ."

Steve snapped his fingers, "I do!" Stark rolled his eyes, and everyone else was probably mentally face palming. He looked around, "I understood that reference. . ." I actually did face palm, shaking my head. _Really Steve? Are you kidding me? _

Fury finished setting out his orders, "Everyone who isn't interrogating or looking for the cube can help us prepare for what's to come."

Everyone nodded and started heading to their posts, except for me. I laughed a bit quietly, "Heh, heh, uh . . . where was the prison room again?"

Fury rolled his eye, "You'll be escorted there by guards, Miss Rogers."

I nodded, slightly grimacing. I hated being called "Miss", I know, it's meant to be polite, but it was too formal for me. After a few moments, a few SHIELD Guards were walking me down the hall towards the prison room. _Well, today just got a whole lot more interesting._


	2. Chapter 2

**Well, here's the next part to my story! I have quite a few chapters already written down at this point, so I'll be able to update it everyday for a while! This chapter is a bit longer than my last one, but oh well.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC Robin.**

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I stood in front of the heavy metal door before it slid open in front of my eyes. I took a deep breath to calm my nerves before I walked in. The prisoner stopped pacing, hearing the door open, and looked up, locking his eyes with mine. I froze for a moment, my mind going blank. _Okay, how do I interrogate people, again? _I sighed and mumbled to myself, "Just wing it, Robin." I walked up to his cage, crossing my arms.

Loki looked at me and chuckled, "I assume you're here to interrogate me?"

I glared up at him, "What do you think?"

He laughed, raising an eyebrow, "I was expecting someone . . . taller."

I growled, "What the hell does height have to do with any of this?"

He chuckled, seemingly amused at my outburst, "Absolutely nothing, Robin."

I blinked, "How did you know my name?"

He smirked arrogantly at me, "Barton told me everything he knew about you pitiful mortals. SHIELD had files packed full of information for all of you . . . except for you. All they knew about you is that you are Captain America's adoptive sister and have basic fire control. Now, why is that?"

_That's right. Clint Barton was one of SHIELD's most trusted spies, well, until Loki took over his mind, anyway. Of course he'd know that kind of information. . . _I looked at Loki, clenching my fists, "I'll be asking the questions here, thank you very much!"

He laughed, sitting down and looking at me, "Very well."

I nodded curtly, and then cleared my throat, "Why did you go through all of this trouble in stealing the Tesseract, and what do you plan to do with it?"

"Ah . . . straight to the point, I see." He grinned, "I do not think I have to tell you the answer to that question."

I sighed, placing the palm of my hand on my forehead. I proceeded to ask him questions to get him to reveal his plans, but no matter how confusing I was, he still only gave me cryptic replies.

I glared at him, "Why can't you just answer the questions straight on?!"

He laughed, "I answered your questions. You just weren't smart enough to understand them."

I clenched my fists so tight that my knuckles turned white. A hint of a flame could be seen on both of my hands and I'm sure, if this were a cartoon, steam would have been flying out of my ears. "Why you. . .!" Just as I went to launch myself at him, a few guards standing by stopped me. "Lemme at 'em!" I yelled, "I'll tear his face off!" Unfortunately, I was not strong enough to free myself from the guards. As a result, a screaming, kicking, and flailing me was dragged out of the room, all the while Loki was laughing and grinning triumphantly at me, as if he wanted me to lose my temper.

After I was dragged out of the room, I was plopped down into a chair, in front of an angry Fury and a disappointed Steve. I was too angry at the time to care, so I sat there and crossed my arms, muttering foul language in Russian.

Steve glared at me, "Robin. . ."

I didn't hear him speak and continued muttering in my native language.

He raised his voice a bit, "Robin!"

I snapped out of my fury, and looked up at both of them, finally realizing where I was. I grimaced slightly at their expressions and covered my face with my hands, "I told you I wasn't qualified for the job," I mumbled, not looking up at them. All I heard was silence, but the air was so tense that every part of my body prickled uncomfortably. I looked back up at them and said quietly, "I'm sorry, I'm just too hot-headed for that line of work. I just . . . I don't know, he just irritated me, and I just . . . I just lost it. . ."

Steve sighed, "I don't know what to do with you, Robin. You weren't even supposed to be on this mission."

"I know, I know, I just wanted to go with you. It was boring, just living in the city, and then an opportunity arose and I had to take it."

"So you decide to smuggle yourself onto the Helicarrier for excitement?!" He sighed and stood in silence for a bit before glancing at Fury, "You can decide what her punishment is. . ." then walked away.

_Thanks for that, brother, leaving me with a furious Mad-Eye Moody. . ._ I glanced at Fury nervously, not making a sound for a while, and then spoke up, "Well, it's starting to get late, I better turn in. . ." I started to move to go leave.

"You're not getting off the hook that easily," Fury said, "Sit back down, Rogers, I'm not done talking."

I sighed and reluctantly complied, avoiding looking at the glare in his eye.

"That kind of rash and irresponsible behavior could jeopardize the whole mission and put everyone in danger. It won't be tolerated on this ship, understand?"

I nodded, mumbling quietly, "Understood, sir. . ."

"And, as punishment, you will be in charge of monitoring Loki and making sure he doesn't try anything."

"What?" I looked him in the eye, unsure if he was serious or not, "Sir, I'd sooner want to be kicked off of the Helicarrier!"

He crossed his arms, "You keep up that previous behavior, and that can easily be arranged."

I gulped and nodded, getting the message.

"Besides, it will help you with your anger issues."

"I don't have anger issues!" He raised an eyebrow, and I paused, ". . . Okay . . . maybe I do. . ."

He nodded, "Now get to your post!"

I sighed and trudged back to the prison room, dejectedly plopping down in a chair and resting my head in the palms of my hands, "Ugh, this sucks!"

I heard a chuckle and a cocky voice reply, "Well, maybe you shouldn't have lost your temper."

I raised my head and glared at Loki, "You know what? Just shut up. It's bad enough that I'm stuck with you for the time being!"

He laughed, "Oh, believe me, I'm not very fond of the idea, either!"

"Good, I'm glad we have at least one understanding," I grumbled. We sat there in silence for a while, before I started getting bored and held up the palm of my hand, staring at it in concentration. Before long, little animals of fire danced around on my hand, frolicking in an imaginary forest.

Loki, noticing the light of the flame, walked up to the edge of the cage and peered curiously at my hand. "What are you doing?"

I glanced at him, "What's it look like I'm doing? I'm entertaining myself!"

"You do that for entertainment?"

"Well, it was either this, or go scare someone, but I'm not allowed to leave right now, so I was left with only one option."

"I see. . ."

"Why do you care, anyway?"

He raised an eyebrow, "I don't. I've just never seen that before."

I rolled my eyes and the animals vanished from my hand, "Okay, light show's over."

He laughed and looked at me, "Why such an abrupt end?"

I leaned back in my chair, drumming one of the arms with my fingers, "Because I got bored of it, and because _you _were watching it."

Loki smirked, "You're not very fond of me, are you?"

"To be honest, I hate your guts. . ."

He laughed, seemingly amused at my statement, "I thought as much, considering what you said earlier."

I nodded absently, tracing random pictures on the chair arm. "Uh-huh. . ."

"So, why do you have to sit here?"

I looked up, snapping back into reality, "What? Oh . . . it's my punishment for having anger issues. . ." I stood up, pacing around the room, "God, I'm so BORED!"

He chuckled at my boredom, "You get bored easily, don't you, mortal?"

I nodded, still pacing, "Yes, yes I do. And when I get bored, I try to entertain myself, but I can't sneak up on anyone while I'm in here. . ." I giggled slightly, "But, eventually, someone will come in here, and I'll make a run for it then!"

"Oh? How so?"

I laughed, "Well . . . if you hear angry yelling . . . you could probably guess what happened. . ."

He grinned, chuckling slightly, "Ah, I see. . ."

Just as I predicted, a few moments later, an angry and annoyed Fury burst into the room, "Robin, where are my limo keys?"

I pulled off an authentically confused and surprised face, "Your what?"

He glared at me and said it slower and louder, "My. Limo. Keys."

"Oh!" I replied, keeping a straight face, "I don't know, sir, where did you last see them?"

"They were in my pocket, and now they're not."

"Did they fall out somewhere?"

"I don't know! You probably stole them!"

"I can assure you, sir, that I did no such thing!" As proof, I stuck my hands in my pockets and pulled out the insides, no contents in either of them.

"Then where could they be?"

I shrugged, "They probably did fall out somewhere while you were walking, then." I then got an idea, "I could help you look again, if you want!"

"No, you're to stay at your post."

"But it's almost time to eat, sir, so I'd be leaving my post soon anyway. . ."

He stood firm, "No, you can't leave your post early. That would put no meaning to your punishment."

I sighed, "Okay . . . but can I at least spar with Agent Romanoff after dinner?"

He narrowed his eye, "No."

"Please? It will help us prepare for later . . . and I promise I won't cause any more mischief during the mission!"

"How do I know you'll keep your word?"

"If I don't. . ." I thought for a moment, and sighed, "If I don't keep my word . . . you can move me down here for the rest of the mission. . ."

Fury nodded, "Okay." He left to continue his search.

I let out a breath I was holding in and plopped back down on the chair, putting a hand to my forehead. "Wow," an all too familiar voice said with a chuckle, "That was a very convincing lie you just told there, mortal, even I almost believed you."

I looked at Loki, "And now I've dug myself a bigger hole . . . anyone wanna lend me a shovel to help me dig myself out?"

He laughed, flashing me a grin, "It will be interesting to see how you get yourself out of this mess you caused."

I narrowed my eyes and said sarcastically, "Gee, thanks. . ."

We sat there in silence for a while, with me occasionally trying to find a way to keep myself from dying of boredom. Eventually, it was finally time for me to go and eat dinner. As soon as Fury came in to relieve me of my duty, I ran out of there faster than you could say "leaping lizards".

I sat down at a table with the rest of the team, poking at the food on my plate with a fork. "How was your first day stuck with Reindeer Games?" Stark teased lightly.

I looked up and groaned, "Boring as hell. . ."

He laughed, "Don't worry, Sparky, I'm sure it will get better."

I shook my head, "No, no it won't! I get bored easily and when I'm bored, I do stupid things!"

"What kind of stupid things?" Bruce asked, joining in on the conversation.

"Well, you know those times when you get an idea . . . and you know it's bad . . . but you STILL do it? That's what I do when I'm bored. . ."

Steve nodded in agreement, "Yeah, like the time you decided to practice using your fire power inside?" We both winced slightly at the memory.

Stark face palmed, "Really, Robin?"

"I was a little kid! I didn't know houses were flammable!"

He shook his head, "Wow. . ."

Natasha just sat there, quietly laughing, "Why can I imagine that happening?"

I giggled a bit, "Because you know I'm a pyromaniac."

She laughed, "You always were a Демон не[1]."

I nodded and giggled, "Да, но не забывайте о моей ниндзя навыков![2]"

She grinned, "Это очень верно![3]"

Stark widened his eyes and looked to Steve, "They're speaking in Russian and laughing . . . should we be worried?"

Steve shrugged, "I don't know. . ."

I laughed, "It's not our fault that you don't know the language of our people."

Stark rolled his eyes and chuckled, "Yeah, yeah, whatever. . ."

I snapped my fingers, "Oh, yeah! Before I forget, Tash, are you up for sparring after dinner?"

Natasha blinked, "Aren't you in trouble with Fury?"

"Well . . . yeah, but I struck a deal with Mad-Eye so I could spar with you."

"Wow, must have been one hell of a deal if he agreed so soon after you got in trouble . . . what was it?"

"I promised that I wouldn't cause any more mischief. And to make sure I keep my word, Mad-Eye can move me to the prison room if I do cause any more trouble."

Natasha widened her eyes, "Oh! Well good luck trying to keep your word, then!"

I nodded, "Thanks. I'll probably need it!

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[1] Russian for: little demon

[2] Russian for: Yes, but don't forget about my ninja skills!

[3] Russian for: That is very true!

**Just a side note, the translations here are probably not entirely correct, I used an online translator, so yeah.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Okay, so here's the next chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC Robin**

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The next morning I walked stiffly into the prison room, my face occasionally squinting in pain. After a few minutes of slowly making my way across the room, I plopped painfully down into a chair, slowly stretching out my legs. Loki, no doubt noticing my discomfort, raised an eyebrow, looking at me, "What are you grumbling about, mortal?"

I looked up, my eyes meeting his. I blinked in confusion, for a moment there I thought I had spotted genuine concern flash across his eyes. I shook my head, clearing my mind, and looked back up at him, "I'm sore!"

He narrowed his eyes slightly, his eyes never leaving mine, "Where?"

My confusion only continued to grow, "Everywhere. . ."

"How did this happen?"

I raised an eyebrow, completely and utterly puzzled, "Why do you care?"

He blinked, "I don't. I am just curious, that is all."

I stared blankly at him, not knowing how to react. I leaned back into my chair, rubbing my neck to try and at least somewhat ease the pain. "Why the sudden interest in mortal life, oh great and powerful God of Lies?" I asked, my voice dripping with sarcasm, "According to you, we are 'dull creatures' who are 'made to be ruled'."

He chuckled, amused at my sarcasm, "If I am to rule you, I would like a brief idea of how your pitiful kind works. What caused you to be sore?"

I glared at him, "I don't have to tell you."

"Why not? Surely it isn't confidential."

I sighed, "You really wanna know?"

He nodded, "Yes."

I sighed yet again, this time trying to soothe my arm muscles. "Never spar with a master assassin if you haven't practiced hand-to-hand combat in years. I learned that the hard way last night."

"Really? Tell me."

I rolled my eyes, "I sparred with Agent Romanoff last night, you should've known that, considering you witnessed me ask Director Fury about it."

"True. . ."

"Anyway, when I was younger, I had trained in Mixed Martial Arts; I just haven't had the need to use my skills in a few years, so I had gotten a bit rusty."

"I see. . ."

I clapped my hands together, "So now I can't walk normally without feeling pain, so instead I have to do an awkward waddle!"

He laughed, "I am sure that's a sight to see!"

"Oh, stop laughing! I already got an earful from Stark about it; I don't need one from you!"

Loki chuckled, grinning at me, "Of course the Man of Iron would mock you for that!"

I nodded, "Yeah, but that's just how he is. . . I'd prank him for revenge, but I promised Fury that I'd stop causing trouble, so I can't. . ."

He gave me a mischievous smile, "Fury doesn't have to know, does he?"

"Well . . . no . . . but he's a spy, he'll find out eventually if I did that. . ."

"Then just keep it hidden from him long enough so that the punishment would no longer be in effect. . ."

"I would . . . but Stark would blab about it. . ."

He frowned, "True. . ."

I nodded, slightly wincing from my sore neck, "Yep. . ."

"Then find a way to shut him up."

I laughed, giving him a cheeky grin, "Is that even possible?"

He chuckled, "I don't know. . ."

I sighed, "I used to have a way to keep him quiet . . . but Fury confiscated my phone, and that had all of my blackmail in it!"

"Blackmail?"

"Mostly it's just really embarrassing things I've caught people doing . . . I don't have any blackmail on Thor though. . ."

Loki grinned at me, "I could provide you with that!"

I raised an eyebrow, "Really?"

He nodded, still smiling brightly at me, "Really!"

I giggled, "We'll have to trade blackmailing material sometime, then! Later, though, like, after this whole fiasco is over with."

He chuckled, "I look forward to it!"

This time, instead of sitting in uncomfortable silence, we talked more about things. Simple conversations about our greatest pranks and other things like that occasionally filled the room. It wasn't nearly as boring as yesterday, and it was kind of nice having someone to talk about my pranks with, well, who wouldn't yell at me for them, anyway. When I was dismissed by Fury, I slowly got up, painfully waddling my way to the door. I heard a faint chuckling from behind and turned around, pouting a bit, "Oh shut up! It's not even funny!"

"It's pretty funny from here!" Loki laughed, smiling at me.

I rolled my eyes, "It's the only way I can walk right now. I have to walk like a freaking penguin!" Loki continued to laugh, but said nothing else. That was perfectly fine, though, I had to leave for lunch anyway.


	4. Chapter 4

**This next chapter is very short compared to the others, but the place where I ended it was the perfect spot to end it!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC Robin**

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I sat next to my brother, munching on a ham sandwich. My eyes darted around the table, shifting a bit under the silence. Thankfully, Stark decided to break it, "So . . . how was your day, little penguin? Reindeer Games laugh at your waddling?"

I rolled my eyes at him, "Yes, yes he did, Tin Can!"

"Tin Can?"

"You call me penguin, I call you Tin Can!" I shot back.

He laughed, "Touché."

I changed the subject, "So, Tin Can," I said with a cheeky grin, "How are you and Bruce doing on locating the Magical Rubik Cube?"

Bruce joined in, chuckling, "Is that what you call the Tesseract now, Robin?"

I nodded, "Yeah! It's magical and just as confusing and complicated as a Rubik Cube!"

Bruce laughed, shaking his head at my logic, but answered my previous question, "We're close to finding it. At this rate, we should have its location in a few hours."

"Nice!"

"Oh yeah, that reminds me!" Natasha butted in, "Robin, you're relieved of your post for the afternoon."

I titled my head, "For what reason?"

"Fury's having me interrogate Loki to finally figure out what he's planning to do. It's imperative that we do, since we're so close to locating the Tesseract. He might have one more trick up his sleeve."

I nodded, "More than likely he does, there's a reason people call him the Trickster, and I'm afraid we might soon find out that reason. . ."

My free afternoon was surprisingly boring. I couldn't think of anything I wanted to do. After a while of roaming the halls, I came to a sad conclusion. When I couldn't steal things, scare people, or prank them, talking to Loki actually entertained me. _Loki. . ._ My mind started wandering, an unconscious image of his face appearing in my mind, smiling at me, mischievous delight lighting his eyes. . . I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts. _What's wrong with me? Why can't I think straight? _I sighed, and stared down the hallway. _Well, might as well just wander aimlessly. . . _And that's exactly what I did. I simply walked around, letting my mind wander for who knows how long. Then the explosion hit.

* * *

**Mwahahaha! Cliff-hanger! :D**


	5. Chapter 5 Part 1

**Okay, so here's the next chapter everyone. For the last one being so short, this one is actually pretty long. This chapter is actually split up into two parts, because I just kept writing and writing and couldn't quite find a good stopping point. XD So here's the first part to chapter 5.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC Robin**

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The Helicarrier rocked violently and I was thrown against the wall, barely stopping my head from bashing against it. I slid down onto the floor, the Helicarrier still somewhat rocking. I used the wall for support and stumbled to the control room, where people were frantically trying to keep the airship in the air.

Fury looked up at me, "Good, you're here! I need you to-"

He was cut off by a loud, guttural roar. My eyes widened, "That's not a good sound. . ."

He nodded, "And the engines are failing. Stark and Rogers are already on their way to repair them."

"Want me to cover for them and keep the enemies away?"

"Yes. And hurry!"

I briefly saluted Fury and sped away, well, as fast as a person with sore legs can run anyway. I stopped in one of the corridors, trying to catch my breath. I watched as Natasha sped past me, a worried look on her face. I was briefly confused, until I turned around and saw an angry Hulk chasing after her. My eyes bulged and I ran as fast as I could because now he was also chasing me.

As I ran, I looked up at the ceiling and managed to jump and climb onto the rafter. The big green monster stopped, looking up at where I was, and, with green eyes burning with rage, roared furiously at me. I had to cover my ears with my hands, the roar was so loud. Then, the beast turned his attention to Natasha, who was still running away, and chased after her again. I waited, making sure that he was truly gone before dropping down and grunting slightly in pain. As I slowly stood up, I quickly got out of the way as Thor ran by, no doubt trying to stop the Hulk from tearing the Helicarrier to shreds.

Figuring the God of Thunder had everything under control, I once again made my way towards where Stark and Steve were. On my way there, a bunch of enemy soldiers were running towards the engine they were working on. I narrowed my eyes and flung a huge fireball at them, knowing I had to do something to keep them busy. The majority of them turned their attention to me, but while I was busy trying to fight them off, two slipped away, heading towards the engine.

By the time I had either chased away or killed the soldiers, Stark, in his Ironman suit, almost crashed into a wall, tackling a soldier who was shooting at Steve. I stood there, panting. Shallow cuts were on my head and blood leaked a bit from my nose. Wiping a bit of blood away, I looked at Stark and Steve, "You okay?"

Steve nodded, entering the corridor, "Yeah. . ."

Stark just briefly raised an arm to show that he was still alive.

"So I take it that the engine got repaired?"

"Yeah," Steve said, "but we did run into some trouble with a few soldiers."

"Sorry, I tried to keep most of them away."

"It's fine, Robin! It could've been worse!"

I nodded, "Yeah. . ."

Sadly, things did get worse. Mere minutes after we were attacked, Loki escaped, killing Agent Phil Coulson in the aftermath. Thor was launched out of the Hellicarrier when Loki used his cage trap against him, and Bruce was sent flying to the Earth, still a raging Hulk. The only good thing that had happened during the attack was that Natasha managed to save Clint Barton from Loki's mind control.

I stood in the prison room, staring at the empty space where the cage used to be. I couldn't handle sitting in the meeting room with Stark, Steve, and Fury. They were probably talking about Coulson's death. Fury had almost sounded close to tears, and when a spy as hardened as himself was showing such an emotion, everyone knew that something terrible happened.

Pretty soon, Stark and Steve joined me in a moment of silence, before Steve decided to speak up. "Was he married?"

Stark blinked, "Uh, no . . . he was a cellist . . . I think. . ."

"I'm sorry . . . he seemed like a good man. . ."

I bowed my head and walked to the wall, kneeling beside the bloodstain where Coulson's dead body was lying moments before, and gently touched it. I was barely paying attention when Stark looked up at Steve, ". . .He was an idiot!"

"Why? For believing?"

"For taking on Loki alone!"

"He was doing his job."

"He was out of his league! He should have waited! He should have. . ."

"Sometimes there isn't a way out, Tony."

"Right. How did that work for him?"

"Is this the first time you've lost a soldier?"

"We are not soldiers!" Stark said, raising his voice a bit before pausing and saying more quietly, "I'm not marching to Fury's fife."

"Neither am I. He's got the same blood on his hands that Loki does, but right now we gotta put that behind us and get this done. Now Loki needs a power source, if we can put together a list. . ."

I looked up, snapping out of my depressing thoughts as I noticed Stark staring at the blood stain before looking back at Steve, "He made it personal," He said, interrupting Steve.

Steve blinked, "That's not the point."

"That is the point. That's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live. Why?"

"To tear us apart."

"Yeah, divide and conquers great, but he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That's what he wants. He wants to beat us, he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience!"

"Right. I caught his act in Stuttgart."

"Yeah. That's just previews, this is . . . this is opening night. And Loki, he's a full-tail diva. He wants flowers, he wants parades, he wants a monument built to the skies with his name plastered-" he cut off, his eyes widening in realization, ". . .Son of a bitch!" Stark walked out into the hallway, quickly and suddenly. I shared a brief and confused glance with Steve before we walked out after him.

Steve looked to me, "Go get ready. I'll let Romanoff know what's going on." I nodded, running up to my quarters, throwing on my black armor and strapping on my throwing knives and a few guns Natasha had lent me. After we all got ready, all four of us, Stark, Steve, Natasha, Clint, and I headed out to the jets.

A pilot stopped us, "You guys aren't authorized to be in here!"

Steve held up his hand, "Son, just don't."


	6. Chapter 5 Part 2

**Okay, I figured I'd do one last update for today by putting the second part of Chapter 5 up, so enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC Robin**

* * *

Stark flew ahead of us in his Iron man suit with us following behind him in a jet. I sat in the back, no one saying anything until I suddenly spoke up, "Steve . . . you know how Stark called Loki a full-tail diva?"

"Yeah . . . what about it?" Steve asked.

"Is it bad that I can now imagine Loki strutting down a red carpet in a fur cloak doing sassy fashion model poses?"

Natasha snickered, "Really? That image popped into your head?"

I nodded, giggling, "Yeah . . . I have a wild imagination! Don't judge me!"

Pretty soon, we all reached New York. I stared at what was already destroyed. I whistled and said, "Wow . . . sassy diva man works fast. . ."

Steve sighed, looking at first the open portal that allowed Loki's army, the Chitauri, to enter Earth, and then at the people running from the chaos. "They're sitting ducks out there."

Clint landed the jet, opening the door and heading out into the streets. The rest of us followed after him. I looked up at Stark tower, seeing an odd, blue beam erupt from the top of the skyscraper. "That must be where Loki has the Tesseract," I said, pointing at the building.

Steve nodded, "And it looks like Stark is already fighting off the Chitauri." Steve looked to Natasha and Clint, "Could you use the jet to help Stark fight off the Chitauri?" They nodded and flew away. "And Robin. . ." Steve turned to address me, but I was already heading towards Stark Tower.

Steve called after me, "Robin!" He tried to catch up, but a wave of Chitauri soldiers attacked him. By the time he fought them off, I was already gone. I stood in the lobby, peering at the ruined furniture. I looked first to a staircase, and then an elevator door. "Hmm . . . stairs or elevator?" I walked to the elevator, "Elevator. I'm too lazy for stairs!" By the time I had made it to the top floor, both Thor and the Hulk had arrived and were doing their part in battle.

I walked out into the room, looking at a splendid view of a destroyed city. I stood before the window, placing my hands on my hips, and then I put my hands in front of me, making a box shape with my forefingers and thumbs. "Yeah . . . that could work. . ." I said to myself, "Jarvis, you got a camera anywhere? This could be an awesome picture!"

"Is now really the time for a photo?" a voice whispered in my ear with a chuckle.

I jumped, whirling around to only come face-to-face with Loki, "AHH! Don't sneak up on me like that!" I yelled, smacking his arm out of reflex.

Loki chuckled, "I'm sorry, did I scare you?"

I paused, staring at him, "Sh-shut up!"

"Do you always hit things when you get scared?"

"Most of the time. It's a reflex I learned in Russia. . ." I said, confused. _Why isn't he trying to kill me? He killed Coulson without a second thought! _I glanced out the window and jested, "I love what you've done with the place!"

He walked up to the window, an amused expression on his face, "You realize you have no chance against them, right?"

"Perhaps. . ."

"Then why fight a hopeless cause?"

"That's one of the many qualities of us mortals! Even if it seems like a lost cause, we're too damn stubborn to go down without a fight."

"That will be the end of you . . . your downfall. . ."

I shrugged, "If I die in battle, at least I'll take a few of the Chitauri with me!" I walked around the room, "Now what was I doing up here again. . . ?" I peered out the landing strip Stark had made. "Right! Portal!" I went to climb up, but a strong hand gripping my arm stopped me.

"I can't let you do that. . ." Loki said, tightening his grip.

I looked at him, "I didn't ask for your permission!" I grabbed the arm that held me with me free hand, and sent fire to my hand, burning his arm slightly. Out of reflex, Loki let go of my arm and put out the fire on him. During that time, I climbed up to a ledge and peered down at him, "Sorry, hon, but I can't let you destroy my city without my permission!" I headed towards the machine that stabilized the portal, looking up and seeing the Chitauri swarming out like angry bees. "Well. . ." I said, looking into the sky, "There goes New York. . ." I looked to the machine and picked up a rock, throwing it at it and ducking behind a crate. As suspected, a force field flung the rock back. "No, just leaving the portal machine unprotected is too easy," I grumbled, "We have to put a freaking force field on it!"

I sighed and headed back to the streets, actually starting to help fight off the Chitauri. I threw a throwing knife into the head of an alien pinning down Steve and helped him up, "Ugly little bastards aren't they?" I said, trying to lighten up the mood.

Steve nodded and smiled a little at me, "Thanks."

"No need to thank me," I said, "We're siblings, that's what we do. We save each other's sorry asses when we get in trouble!" I jumped into battle again, taking down quite a few more Chitauri. But the battle was long and hard. I had quite a few wounds from when the aliens landed a hit. None were too bad at the time, so I kept fighting.

Natasha, who was fighting alongside Steve and I, sighed, leaning against an abandoned car. "Captain, none of this is gonna mean a damn thing if we don't close that portal."

"Our biggest guns couldn't touch it," Steve replied.

"Well, maybe it's not about guns."

"You wanna get up there, you're gonna need a ride."

Natasha glanced up at the sky and backed up, "I got a ride. I could use a lift though."

Steve put his shield in front of him, "You sure about this?"

"Yeah, it's gonna be fun." Before I knew it, Natasha ran forward, jumping off of Steve's shield and grabbing onto a passing Chitauri aircraft.

"Okay," I said, "That was crazy, but awesome!" I looked up, "Think she needs help?"

Steve shook his head, "Robin . . . don't-"

Too late. I already jumped and caught myself an alien ride, following after Natasha. Once I got close, I jumped off and skidded to a landing, scraping my hands slightly. Natasha looked up, "Robin?"

"Thought I'd cover for you. Aliens might get smart and try to stop you."

She nodded, "Okay."

Just as suspected, an alien snuck up behind me, I turned around and faced him, but he slashed my head, leaving a huge gash. I cried in pain and lost my balance, falling over. As I fell, I quickly grabbed the Chitauri by the ankles, dragging him down with me. As I fell, I closed my eyes tight, awaiting a painful and brief death. When it never arrived, I hesitantly opened my eyes, and, to my utmost surprise, I saw Loki looking down at me, holding my arms. I was completely baffled as he pulled me out onto the floor, dragging me away from my death. He held me in his arms for a moment before setting me down so that I was lying on my back. He frowned slightly as he noticed the gash on my head and gently touched it with the palm of his hand. Through my blurred vision, I saw a green flash of light before I passed out.


	7. Chapter 6

**Again, another really short chapter. I apologize, but a lot of my short chapters I feel had a good stopping point at that point, so yeah. XD But I suppose my really random, huge chapters kind of make up for it.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC Robin**

* * *

When I woke up, I was still in Stark Tower, but it was quiet. I looked out, seeing no more Chitauri invading. I touched my forehead and, to my surprise, the gash was gone. The only way I knew my head had been cut open was that my head was pounding now. I looked around before seeing the rest of the Avengers pointing their weapons at Loki, who had received a few cuts and bruises. "If it's all the same to you. . ." he said, "I'll have that drink now."

I stood up and walked towards the group, hanging back slightly. Loki glanced at me and gave me a small smile, which was received with a confused stare by me. I never managed to get the chance to ask him why he saved me before he was put in handcuffs and a muzzle, no doubt to keep him from persuading someone to set him free. Loki glanced at me once more and I mouthed the words "Thank you" to him. He gave me a small nod, letting me know that he had received the message. I never thought I would say those words to such a man, but I had come to the realization that, were it not for Loki, I would have been dead by now.

Natasha looked at me after Thor and Loki had departed to their home, Asgard. "How's your head?"

I blinked, somewhat distracted by my thoughts, "What? Oh, it's better, but it still kind of hurts."

"It looked like it was a pretty nasty hit. Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine!"

"How hard did you get hit?" Bruce asked, going into doctor mode.

I was about to answer, but Natasha beat me to it, "Hard enough that her forehead got split open," she stared at my head, narrowing her eyes in confusion, "but it seems like it's healed. How it managed to heal that quickly is a mystery to me."

I was about to speak, and then paused. They would never believe me if I told them that it was Loki who had healed me, so I decided to lie, "I cauterized it with my own flame."

Bruce raised an eyebrow, "Is that even possible?"

I shrugged, "I managed to do it, so I guess so."

He shook his head, "I still want to check your head, make sure nothing's damaged internally and whatnot."

I sighed, "Fine. . ." I trudged after Bruce towards the nearest lab we could think of. Towards Stark Tower.

Once we reached the building, Bruce looked for Stark, "Sorry to crash your little remodeling party," he said when we had found him, "but could you show us to your lab? I need to take a look at Robin's head here."

Stark glanced at me, "Sparky's head get hit?"

Bruce nodded, "Yeah."

"But I'm fine! No one needs to look at my head!" I protested.

"Don't whine!" Bruce said, "It's better to be safe than sorry!"

Stark nodded, "Right this way, then." He started leading us to the laboratory. On the way there, we passed a Loki-shaped dent in the floor. I looked at it and winced slightly. _That must have hurt!_

_You have no idea. . ._ a strange voice echoed in my head. I widened my eyes in surprise. _What the hell was that? _I snapped out of my thoughts when Stark yelled at me to hurry up. Once we reached the lab, Bruce had me lay down on a table and attached wires to my forehead. He looked into a screen that showed a sonogram of my brain and frowned, "That's odd. . ."

I looked up, worried, "What's odd?"

Bruce narrowed his eyes, "All of your brain functions are working fine, but. . ."

"But what?"

"I'm getting readings of this odd energy signature surrounding your brain . . . it appears to be increasing your neurological activity to an . . . abnormal rate. . ."

"Is that good or bad?"

"It's not harmful," he replied, "but it means you'll probably have trouble focusing. . ."

"How much of this weird energy is there?" I asked.

"About . . . twenty five percent," he turned off the machine and unhooked me from it, "We'll monitor it for now."


	8. Chapter 7

**Hey everyone! Here's the next chapter, but I feel I'm going to have to explain a few things first. First off, there is an appearance of a new character in this story. And no, it is not my OC. It is the OC of one of my friends, but I feel I had to include her OC in my story because both of our OCs have back stories that intertwine a lot at this point. And yes, I have full permission from my friend to put her OC in my story.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC Robin.**

* * *

It's been a year since the Chitauri attack, and my brain had almost gone back to normal. I had to have monthly appointments with Bruce so he could check up on my brain, and the odd energy had receded to two percent in the last few months. During this time, my good friend Ayame had been listed as part of the Avengers. Natasha was put in charge of training her, but I helped her out every once in a while. I occasionally told Ayame stories about the Chitauri attack and my adventures on the Helicarrier, but I never told her about how Loki had saved my life. I didn't tell anyone that, they would never have understood or believed me.

We were sitting in the lounge in Stark Tower. Ayame was sitting down on a white couch, and I was seated on the arm of a chair. I was currently in the middle of telling one of my stories, ". . . And then, Fury burst into the room, red-faced with anger as he searched for his limo keys."

Ayame looked at me with wide blue eyes, "Did he know that you had them?"

I shook my head, "Nope! But he suspected that I did."

"What happened then?"

"I did what I always do, lie it out and make sure I didn't get caught."

"And he believed you?"

"Yeah, it was a very convincing lie."

"Did you ever give him back his keys?"

I widened my eyes, pulling Fury's keys out of my pocket, "Nope. . ."

She paled, "Shouldn't you give those back?"

"Yeah. . ."

"Are you going to?"

"Not directly! If he knew that I not only lied about where his keys were, but kept them from him for a _year_ . . . I'll be dead meat!" I put the keys back into my pocket, "You never saw them . . . right?"

She gave me a wink, "Saw what?"

I gave her a brief nod, "You're good."

_You still haven't dug yourself out of that mess? _a soft, barely audible voice echoed in my head with a chuckle, _Silly mortal. . ._

I blinked in confusion before Ayame's voice brought me back to reality, "Hello? Robin, you there?"

"What? Oh, sorry . . . what did you say?"

"I asked you what happened to the villain in the end."

"Oh, Loki? Thor dragged his sorry butt back to Asgard. I don't know what happened to him after that."

"Asgard?"

I nodded, "Yeah, it's their homeland. I've never been there myself, but Thor described it to me while we were on the Helicarrier. He said it was a world far away from our own with large, golden palaces and a rainbow bridge that they call the Bi-Frost."

Ayame's eyes widened and a huge grin spread on her face, "A rainbow bridge?"

"Don't get any ideas, now. You need a special magic just to get there."

She looked crestfallen, "Aww. . ."

I sighed, "Don't worry, I can ask Thor to take you there next time he visits. . ."

Ayame smiled and jumped up, giving me a tight hug, "Yay! Thank you, thank you!"

I leaned back, trying to push her away. "Hey! Stop it, now! I don't like hugs!"

A faint chuckle sounded in my head, and the voice returned, slightly louder this time. _This is quite entertaining to watch!_

I stopped struggling and widened my eyes, "Okay . . . I'm not the only one who heard that, right?"

Ayame looked at me, confused, "Heard what?"

I paused and shook my head, "Never mind. . ."

She looked concerned now, "What did you hear?"

"It's nothing."

_Nothing? I can assure you that I am far from nothing!_

Ayame snapped her fingers, "Hey! Robin, don't space out now!"

I shook my head to clear my mind, "Sorry. . ."

"You're unusually flighty today, Robin. . . Maybe you should go see Bruce."

I nodded slowly, "Yeah . . . maybe I should. . ."

Pretty soon, I was lying down on a table once again with wires on my forehead. Bruce widened his eyes in surprise, "Well, that explains it!"

"Explains what?"

"It explains why you're having so much trouble focusing. It appears that the odd energy has skyrocketed to seventy five percent in the last few hours."

I sat up, "What?"

He looked at me and nodded, "Yes. But I don't know how it managed to shoot up so quickly. . ."

I nodded, "Me either. . ." _Maybe it has something to do with the voice I keep hearing in my head._

I heard a chuckle. _Smart mortal . . . you learn faster than most of your kind._

I widened my eyes a bit, _That voice . . . it sounds familiar. . ._ I unhooked myself from the machine and thanked Bruce before walking out into the hall. _I know I've heard that voice somewhere!_

_Of course you have. Think, mortal, look back into your memories._

I paced around the hallway, searching my mind. My most recent memories flashed by my mind. The Helicarrier, the Chitauri Invasion, Loki. I stopped dead in my tracks, my eyes widening. _It couldn't be. . ._

Loki's mischievous laugh echoed in my mind. _Hello, Robin. Did you miss me?_


	9. Chapter 8

**Okay, here's the next chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC Robin**

* * *

I stood there completely flustered and perplexed, _But . . . how? Why?_

He chuckled, _You're smart enough to piece it together yourself, mortal._

I paused, thinking about last year's events before answering him, _It had something to do with you healing me, didn't it? What did you do to me?_

_Nothing . . . yet. But you are right, it did have something to do with me healing you. My magic opened your mind to me. I can see what you see, hear what you hear, and hear your thoughts. And, as you have learned by now, I can communicate with you telepathically. You are an open book to me, mortal._

_So that's what the odd energy signatures were, _I replied, somewhat disturbed that this man was now in my head, _they were traces of your magic._

_Correct._

I shook my head, starting to walk down the hall again. _Okay, today just got a whole lot weirder. _I heard Loki chuckle, but he didn't say anything. _What? No comment? _I joked lightly before entering the living room in Stark Tower.

Ayame looked up before looking at me concerned, "You okay, girly? You look like you've seen a ghost. . ."

_I suppose you could say that. . . _Loki said smugly.

I tried to put on a more relaxed face, "Yeah, I'm fine." _Shush, you! _I growled in my head.

He laughed, _Good luck trying to make me stay silent, mortal!_

Ayame nodded, "Okay."

Pretty soon, though, our little chat was interrupted by Steve bursting into the room, a serious expression on his face, "There you are!"

I looked at him, "What's up, bro?"

Steve said hurriedly, "We're having a meeting. Follow me."

I shared a glance with Ayame, "Sounds urgent." She nodded and we hurried after him into the hallway.

_He's not your real brother, but you still insist on calling him that, _Loki said, _Why is that?_

_Because you don't need to be related to consider each other siblings, _I stated, _He's a brother to me and . . . he's all I have left. . ._

Loki softened his voice, noticing my now somber mood, _What of your real family?_

I tried not to cringe at the mention of "real family" and replied softly,_ Nonexistent. . ._

_I see. . ._

We eventually reached the lobby where the rest of the Avengers were either sitting or standing. And, right there in the middle of it all was the tall silhouette of Thor. "What are you doing here?" I asked, surprised.

He looked to me and smiled, "Hello my friend! It has been a while!"

Ayame widened her eyes and whispered to me, "Who's that?"

I looked to her, "That would be Thor."

"That's Thor?" she asked, blushing slightly, "He's cute. . ."

I rolled my eyes and pushed her towards him, "Thor, Ayame. Ayame, Thor. There, you've been introduced, can we move on now?"

Thor smiled and kissed Ayame's hand, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Ayame."

Ayame blushed and giggled, "Nice to meet you too. . ."

I gagged, "Blech! Mush-fest!"

Thor laughed, "And you haven't changed one bit, Robin!"

I rolled my eyes, "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Can you just tell us what the hell you're doing here?"

He sighed, "I wish I was here just visiting, but alas, it is not so. I come bearing grave news. Loki has escaped from Asgard, and I fear he is hiding somewhere here on Midgard. I was sent to look for him. I was hoping you could help me."

"What does he look like?" Ayame asked.

_Tall. Handsome. Quite the charmer, _Loki said smugly.

I giggled, "Tall. Has black hair that fans out and makes him look like a psycho. He also has this creepy rape-face going on, you know, kind of like this," I paused and demonstrated his impish grin he got whenever something went his way. In my opinion, it did kind of look like a rape-face. I continued with a snicker, "Oh, and he's a sassy diva! So you might see him flaunting around like he owns the place or something."

_Diva?_

I laughed at both Loki's reaction and the reactions of the other Avengers, which was a mixture of surprise, shock, and a struggle to keep from cracking up laughing. _Well, you gotta admit, my depiction of you is more accurate than your own._

_I disagree, Robin. . ._

Ayame giggled, "Ah, okay!"

Steve thought for a moment, "So, we'll need to figure out where he's hiding. . ." He paused and looked at me.

I raised an eyebrow, "What're you looking at me for?"

"You're good at hiding things . . . and you sometimes act like him. . ."

"I do not!" I protested. Steve raised an eyebrow.

_Oh yes you do, _Loki chuckled.

"Okay . . . so what if I do?" I said out loud after a while.

Steve answered me, "If you were on the run and trying to hide from society . . . where would you hide?"

I thought for a moment, "Hmmm. . . If I was trying to hide, I would vanish from the world for a while . . . possibly a few years, maybe more. After the world had forgotten me, I would hide in plain sight, so to speak, by disguising myself and creating a new identity, hiding amongst society again as this new person." _Little do they know that I am currently doing just that, _I thought to myself.

Of course, Loki had heard that thought. _What have you to hide from, mortal?_

_I'm not obliged to tell you, _I stated simply and rather harshly. _End of discussion._

Stark nodded, "Makes sense. But it's hard to forge an identity."

"We have to assume that he has the materials to do so," I pointed out, "We can't quite rule anything out yet." I looked to Thor, "He shape-shifts, right?"

Thor nodded, "He does. . ."

I groaned, "This will take a long time, then. . ." _I don't suppose you'd just tell me where you're hiding?_

Loki chuckled, _Of course not, mortal! Where's the fun in that?_

_And you're all about having fun, aren't you?_

_Of course! I'm not called the God of Mischief for naught._

_I guess so. . . _I mumbled. I let out a small yawn and looked out the window, noticing the sky getting dark. "Well, it's probably time to turn in . . . we can start looking for him tomorrow."

Stark laughed, "We just said that, Sparky! You didn't hear us?"

I grumbled, "No. . ."

"You must really be tired then."

I nodded, "Yeah. . ." And before anyone got the chance to say anything else to me, I turned around on my heel and started walking to my room.


	10. Chapter 9

**Hey everyone! This is probably going to be my last chapter update for the day. Hope you enjoy it!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC Robin**

* * *

Midnight. The Witching Hour, as some would call it. I was wide awake, listening to the faint trickle of the rain hitting the window. I watched the shadows in the corner dance in constant motion as the rain constantly changed the twilight light. But, unfortunately, no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't sleep. I sighed and closed my eyes, trying to relax.

I heard a soft chuckle that barely broke the peaceful rainfall, "Having trouble sleeping?"

My eyes snapped open and I let out a tiny gasp of surprise as I saw a tall and dark figure looming over me. The sight of such a dark shadow that was most certainly real frightened me, for I had no idea how this being had gotten into my room. Like a small girl watching a horror film, I gave into childish fear and shrank into my bed, pulling my covers over my nose, my wide eyes never leaving the shadow.

The strange and mysterious silhouette chuckled, "Relax. I will not hurt you. . ."

I hesitantly sat up and reached over towards my nightstand, turning on the lamp, all the while looking at the ominously looming figure. My eyes squinted shut when the bright light filled my bedroom, my face crunching up as if I had smelled something terrible. When my eyes grew accustomed to the sudden light, I looked towards the figure again and widened my eyes, scooting backwards until my back hit the backboard. "L-loki?! What the hell are you doing here?!"

He shrugged absentmindedly, "I was bored. . ."

I raised an eyebrow, utterly confused, "Uh-huh . . . how . . . how did you even get in here?"

He smiled arrogantly, "Magic. A term you mortals have chosen to stop believing in."

I rolled my eyes, "Yeah, yeah, whatever . . . why did you come here? I mean, you're taking the risk of getting caught."

He thought for a moment, taking a seat on the edge of my bed, ". . . I missed our little chats. . ."

I looked at him skeptically, "But you can talk in my head."

He sighed, "It's not quite the same . . . besides, it distracted you, did it not?"

I gave a small nod, "A little . . . but it wasn't too distracting. . ."

He looked up at me, "Really?"

"Yeah. . ."

Loki studied my face for a moment, a slight frown on his lips, "What seems to be troubling you?"

I looked up, "What?"

"You seem rather distant. You're usually more alert than this. . ."

I sighed, "It's just that . . . I don't know . . . there's a lot going on now and so a lot has been on my mind. I'm tired but there's so many things going on in my head that I can't sleep. . ."

He nodded, regarding me thoughtfully, "I see. . ."

I settled back down on my bed, pulling the covers up around me, "I wish I could just fall asleep. . ."

He smiled and stood up, quietly walking towards my bedside and standing next to me. "The key is to relax, Robin. . ." he said softly, gently stroking my hair.

I looked at him, completely confused by the gesture, "What. . . ?" Before I could say anything else, a warm flash of green light filled my vision briefly before I fell asleep.

The next time I woke up, warm morning light filtered into my otherwise dark room. I sat up, rubbing sleep from my eyes. _Did that really happen last night? _I wondered. I looked at the end of my bed and noticed the small crinkle in my black sheets where he had sat earlier. _Yep. . ._

_Good morning, Robin, _a familiar voice greeted, _Did you sleep well?_

_Yeah. . . _I stood up and stretched my arms out before walking out into the hallway, _What did you do to me last night?_

_I simply used my magic to calm your brain, which in turn allowed you to sleep._

_Why?_

_Must you question everything I do, mortal?_

_Yes, because I don't understand why you're helping me with simple matters when we're enemies. . ._

He chuckled softly, _I suppose you have good reason for your confusion. I simply did not see you as an enemy at the time. . ._

I raised an eyebrow, _Uh-huh. . . _I reached the kitchen and poured myself a bowl of cereal before sitting down at the table to eat, pondering while I did so. I wondered if I should have told someone that Loki had visited me, but I was conflicted. He had saved my life; it felt like I owed him something. The feeling of this debt that I owed him hung over me like a dark rain cloud. I had no idea on how I would repay him for saving me. It seemed that at the moment I could do nothing aside from keeping our meeting secret as payment. Perhaps he knew this, which would explain why he had visited me without hesitation. _The clever bastard. . ._

Loki chuckled, _Ah! A compliment! That's new!_

I rolled my eyes, _Yeah, well, enjoy it while it lasts; I'm not one to throw out random compliments._

He laughed, _I noticed._

I shook my head and finished eating my cereal before standing up and putting the dishes away. Just then, the other Avengers started entering the kitchen and sitting down to eat. "Morning, Robin!" Steve greeted, "You're up early!"

I looked up, snapping out of my thoughts, "What? Oh, yeah . . . I guess. . ."

He raised an eyebrow, "Got a lot on your mind?"

I nodded, "You could say that. . ." Steve nodded before getting some breakfast out and starting to eat. I looked around the table, "Where's Thor?" I asked, noticing him missing from the room.

"He went ahead to start his search for Loki. We'll join him later, but first we have to investigate something," Steve answered.

"And what would that be. . . ?"

"It appears there was a break-in at a nearby prison. From what I heard, a few of the convicts escaped. We've been sent to find out who broke in and track down and re-capture the convicts."

I widened my eyes, "Well, that's new!" I tried to appear calm, but I couldn't escape the rising panic inside me that told me that, somehow, Loki had something to do with it. _What are you playing at? _I wondered to myself.


	11. Chapter 10

**Hey everyone! Here's another chapter for you all. At this point, it's actually getting close to what I haven't quite written down yet. I'll still be able to post a lot of chapters daily, but once it is all caught up on here, updating time will start to slow down.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC Robin**

* * *

I stood in front of the prison gates, staring at the tall and foreboding electric fence that surrounded the whole area. Steve was interrogating a burly, squinty-eyed guard, "So, what do you remember?"

The guard scratched the back of his head, eyes squinting even more in concentration, "Well . . . I remember sitting in the security room, looking at the cameras, when they suddenly went out. I went to investigate, but by the time I got to the cells, there was no one there with no evidence of anyone being there, aside from some recently unlocked cells."

"Were there any fingerprints?"

The frazzled guard shook his head, "We scanned for fingerprints on the doors and locks, but there were none."

Ayame bounded up to me, her eyes shining, "This is my first mission! So exciting!"

I rolled my eyes, "Yeah, yeah, missions are great . . . until you die. . ."

She paled, "What?"

"We're dealing with criminals here, and not just any normal ones, we're talking about super-powered criminals. They won't hesitate to kill you if they get the chance. . ."

"Why?" she asked, looking at me like an innocent two-year old.

I glanced at her and replied softly, "I don't know . . . I suppose some do it because they find enjoyment out of it, and some might feel that they have to. . ."

"Well, that makes no sense!" Ayame proclaimed.

I shrugged and nodded, "They're confusing all right. . ." _Especially you, Loki. . ._

Loki chuckled, _How so?_

_You've had plenty of chances to kill me, but you never took them. . ._

_Have you ever considered the possibility that, maybe, I might not wish to kill you?_

_But why? _I asked. Loki only chuckled and didn't answer me. I growled quietly in frustration before stalking over to the guard, "May I take a look at the locks?" I asked, trying to keep my voice as calm as possible.

He nodded, "Of course!"

"Thanks," I said curtly before walking to the open cell doors and kneeling down, inspecting the locks.

Loki chuckled and whispered, _Iron Man is red, Thor's hair is gold. Get on your knees and do as you're told._

I widened my eyes, a disturbed look on my face, _Shut up! I'm trying to concentrate here!_

He replied softly with a chuckle, _One day you'll comply. . ._

I paled and shook my head, my disturbed expression growing even more apparent on my face, _No, no I won't! Now shut up! _I concentrated on the lock before looking up, "The lock wasn't picked, I can tell you that. It looks like it was deliberately broken. I don't know how they managed that without leaving prints. . ."

"How can you tell?" the guard asked.

"I have experience with locks. If the lock was picked, you wouldn't be able to tell from the outside. Look here," I pointed at the keyhole, pointing out the rough gouges in the golden exterior, "See how the outside is damaged? Almost as if someone planted a small explosive on it. However, there is no ash or residue to show for an explosion."

"Then how did it happen?"

I sighed, standing up, "I don't know . . . but whoever did this certainly knew what they were doing. . ."

_How do you know so much about locks? _Loki asked.

_When I lived in Russia, I had to steal things in order to live. At first, I pickpocketed people, but when I couldn't find enough food, I started breaking into houses for it. . ._

_Ah, I see . . . so you dabbled in a bit of criminal intent. . ._

_I didn't dabble, I lived in it. It was my only choice. . ._

_Then how did you manage to stop?_

A ghost of a smile spread on my face, _Steve found me. . . _I walked into an open cell and inspected the surroundings, "Maybe we can find evidence in here," I suggested to the others, "Check the other cells, maybe. . ." I looked to the guard, "What kind of evidence should we look for?"

"Hairs, fingerprints, a possible weapon used in the breakout, anything, really," the guard said. "You'll need these," he tossed a pair of Latex Gloves at me.

I caught them and pulled them over my pale hands, "Thanks. . ." I slowly walked around the room, inspecting the dim surroundings.

Steve walked in after me, "Looks like a tornado went off in here. . ."

I nodded, picking up a sheet that was thrown across the disheveled room, "Yeah, kind of like my room!" I set the white sheet down and smiled, "Well now, what do we have here. . . ?" I held up a thin, black strand of hair in between my forefinger and thumb.

Steve walked over to me and took the hair, placing it in a plastic bag, "Good eye, Robin!" he congratulated as he handed the bag to the guard.

I smiled, "Thanks!" I turned the sheet over and widened my eyes as I saw bright crimson splatters of blood on it, "Okay, either someone was on their period, or a fight broke out in here. . ." I looked around at the trashed room, it was so bad that even the mattress was splayed and torn to shreds all over the room, "I'm going to say it was a fight."

_Periods? Really, mortal? _Loki asked with amusement.

_It's possible. . . _

_In a male prison?_

_Maybe they were on their man-period!_

He chuckled, _I will never understand your logic, mortal. . ._

_Good! I like to confuse people! _I continued searching for evidence, but, aside from the blood and hair, there were no other traces to be found. The guard had left to scan what we had found to find the culprit. I paced impatiently in the hallway like a furious tiger, "It's all fine and dandy that we found something, but it doesn't bring us any closer to finding the convicts!"

Steve sighed and nodded, "True, but there's not much else we can do aside from waiting for the results . . . I hope Thor has had better luck than us. . ."

Ayame smiled, "I'm sure he has!"

"I don't know," I said somewhat quietly, "Loki's fairly slippery. . ."

Ayame looked to me, somewhat confused, "He is?"

I stared at her for a while in a bit of surprise before remembering that she wasn't there for the Chitauri Invasion, and, therefore, knew nothing about Loki. "He's known as the God of Mischief and Lies," I explained, "It's in his nature to trick people in order to get what he wants, so because of that, he's good at slipping away from certain situations. . ."

"Oh, that makes sense now," she replied.

_. . . That has to be the most flattering thing you've said about me, _Loki teased lightly.

_Oh, shut up! I had to explain it to Ayame, okay? _I looked to Ayame and Steve, "Shall we head back to Stark Tower, then?" I inquired as I burned the gloves off of my hands. They both nodded and we walked out of the prison gates.


	12. Chapter 11

**All right, this might be my last update for today at the moment. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC Robin**

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I plopped down on the white couch in the living room, letting out a frustrated sigh, "Ugh! It feels like we got nothing done!"

"Just be patient, Robin," Steve said, "We just have to wait for the results."

"Patience is a virtue that I don't have!" I shot back, "I thought you knew this by now!"

Steve sighed, "Then find something to do until then."

"Like what?"

Loki chuckled, _You could always do me, mortal. . ._

All of the color drained from my face as my eyes widened, _What?! _I got no response from him, but Steve waved his hand in front of my face, snapping me back to reality.

"Robin! Are you okay? You got pale all of the sudden. . ." Steve looked at me with concern.

I looked at him for a moment before nodding, "Yeah . . . I'm fine. . ." _Knock it off, Loki!_

Loki chuckled, _Why should I? Your reactions amuse me._

I let out an exasperated sigh, _Seriously?_

Steve still looked at me with brotherly worry, "Are you sure? You've been acting weird for a while now. . . Are you sick?"

"What? No!" I protested, "Steve, I'm fine!" And then my nose decided that it was the perfect time to sneeze.

Steve raised an eyebrow, "Uh-huh. . ."

Ayame bounded over to us and plopped down next to me, "Aww! Robby just needs a hug!"

I gave her a death-glare and snarled in a dead serious tone, "You hug me, you die."

She widened her eyes, "Never mind." Just then, Thor entered the room. Ayame looked up at him and smiled, "Thor!" she exclaimed happily as she ran up and hugged him.

Thor chuckled and returned the hug, "Hello, Ayame!"

I rolled my eyes and stared out the window. _The Mighty Thor has returned, _Loki commented, his voice full of disdain.

Ayame then hid behind Thor and pointed at me, "Robby threatened to kill me!"

Thor chuckled, "She does that. She even threatened to kill me, once!"

_Did you? _Loki chuckled, sounding slightly impressed.

_Well, he was annoying me! _I replied, _And he ate some of my chocolate stash, so I threatened to rip his intestines out and melt them to his face!_

_Well then! _he answered, sounding surprised, and then he chuckled, _I knew there was a reason I liked you!_

I rolled my eyes and teased, _Only one reason?_

_No, there are many reasons for why I have grown fond of you, that threat you told him only added to the list._

I widened my eyes slightly in surprise, _Really? But . . . I'm not a likeable person. . ._

He replied sincerely, _I disagree, Robin. . ._

I was sent back to reality when Ayame poked my side, "Robin? You look like you're floating on a cloud. . ."

I looked at her, confused, "I do? Must be the energy in my brain. . ."

Thor walked up to us, "What energy?"

"Bruce said that there was an odd energy signature in my brain," I explained, "and that it would cause me to have trouble focusing."

Thor furrowed his brow in concentration, "Interesting. . ." He suddenly walked off towards the lab.

Ayame and I shared a confused glance before she followed after him. I just sat there on the couch, left with my own thoughts. I stared out the window, looking over the city. It was surprisingly calm for a city with escaped convicts hiding in it. Out of sheer boredom, I stared looking for random shapes in the fluffy white clouds.

Pretty soon, though, Thor entered the living room again. "Robin, how did you come into contact with Aserian magic?"

I looked up at him, confused by his sudden question, "What?"

"The energy signatures in your brain," he explained, "They match that of Asgard."

"They do?"

"Yes, more specifically, they match Loki's magic. How did that happen?" Everyone looked at me with confused and curious glances.

I shifted slightly under their gaze before slouching into the couch, _Should I tell them?_

Loki sighed, _That is entirely up to you, Robin._

_Well, they already figured out what it is. I think I have to. . . _I took a deep breath and looked around the room at each of them. "You know when I got that big gash on my head?"

Steve nodded, "Yeah, you said you cauterized it. What about it?"

I closed my eyes and mentally prepared myself before looking at my brother, "Well . . . I might have told a teeny little lie. . ."

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**I know it's a bit short, but I wanted to leave off at a cliff hanger because, as my friend calls me, I am an "evil little gremlin". XD**


	13. Chapter 12

**Hey everyone! Before I begin anything, I'd just like to say thanks to everyone who favorited, followed, reviewed, and just plain viewed my story so far. It's really, truly uplifting and exciting to know that you all take the time to read all that I've gotten up so far, even if you don't like it, it's still nice to know that you took the time to read it and formulate an opinion on it. So thank you!**

**Anyway, this chapter is kind of short and mostly dialogue, but the next chapter after this one will make up for it. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC Robin.**

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Steve narrowed his eyes, his voice firm and harsh, "What?"

I looked at his furious gaze, and then quickly averted my eyes, "That's not how I healed it. . ."

"Then what really happened?"

"When I got hit, I fell off of the building. But," I said quietly, "Loki caught me." I glanced up and looked at the baffled looks of everyone in the room. I continued when no one said a word, "He dragged me away from the edge and healed my wound with his magic."

"Why did he do that?" Steve asked, utterly confused.

I shrugged, "I don't know. . ."

"Did his magic affect you in other ways?" Thor asked.

I nodded, "Yeah, he uh . . . he can talk to me telepathically."

"Is that why you've been so distracted recently?" Steve asked, "Because he's been talking to you?"

I nodded, "Yeah."

"How long has this been happening?" Steve looked at me with concern.

"For a few days now."

"Has he been hurting you?"

I shook my head, "No."

"Why didn't you tell anyone?"

"Because no one would have believed me! So I figured I could handle it."

Steve glanced at Thor, "Is there any way to fix this?"

Thor shook his head and sighed, "I do not know."

Steve sighed, "I don't know what to do then."

"Neither do I," I said quietly.

"I suppose all we can do right now is just wait it out until we find a solution." He looked at me, sheer worry on his face, "Just . . . be careful, okay? I don't trust him. . ."

"He can't be that bad, can he?" Ayame asked, "I mean, he did save Robin, right?"

Steve shrugged, "I don't know, but he's not the most trustworthy sort."

_I would never harm you, Robin. . . _Loki said quietly.

_Really? _I asked, surprised.

_Really, _he answered sincerely.

The room had grown uncomfortably quiet. I shifted a bit in the silence; it had seemed that when the noise had all died down the room had gotten much stuffier. I stood up abruptly, glancing quickly around the room before saying in a hurried voice, "I think I'm going to go get some fresh air, okay? Okay. 'Bye!" And I walked as quickly out of that room as I could. I had always hated quiet rooms.


	14. Chapter 13

**Okay, so here's the next chapter! As I said earlier, hopefully this one makes up for the super short one from before. This chapter has a bit off fluffiness in it, so it's at this point where we're now getting into the romance aspect of this story. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC Robin.**

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I walked hurriedly down the busy sidewalk, trying to avoid the large throng of New Yorkers as best as I could. It seemed like my problems were only growing. I had a villain stuck in my head who constantly talked to me, and now everyone knew about it. What would happen now between the Avengers and me? Would they stop trusting me because I never told them the truth about what happened? I stopped walking, already a good distance from the looming shape of Stark Tower, and sat down with my back against the wall of a dull gray building. I pulled my knees up to my chest and let out a distressed sigh, resting my head on my knees. _Fuck my life. . . _

I heard a man's voice with a rather unique accent next to me, "Why the long face?" he asked with a chuckle.

I growled, not even raising my head, "Go away, I'm not in the mood."

Yet he did not leave, he only chuckled and replied, "Well, that's not a way to treat an old friend, is it?"

I looked up, seeing a handsome young man about my age looking down at me. He was pale and his black hair was short, but it was slicked back neatly. His dark eyes looked at me warmly, but they had a mysterious glint hidden in them. I did not recognize this man. I stood up, not even bothering to smooth out my wrinkled shirt as I looked him in the eyes, "Look, I don't know who you are or who you're looking for, but I don't. . ." I trailed off, noticing the way the mysterious man held himself. It was a way no one else did. His head was held high and he had no sign of a slouch. It gave him a sense of pompous authority and a rather regal appearance.

He smiled, noticing the recognition in my eyes, "So, you saw through my disguise. Smart mortal. I was afraid I'd have to tell you upfront."

I widened my eyes slightly, and then said in a low voice, "Loki, what are you doing here?"

Loki shrugged, "You looked upset, so I thought you needed company. . ."

"But . . . why?"

He rolled his eyes, "Again with the questions. Why must you constantly question me?"

"I just," I sighed, "I just don't understand, that's all."

He smiled softly at me, "One day, then, you will understand."

I sighed, slightly frustrated, "Hopefully soon, I hate being confused." I continued walking, Loki walking beside me. He looked at me for a moment and hesitated a bit before putting an arm around me. I looked up at him warily, confused by his action.

He sighed, "Cheer up. You're not as amusing when you're sad. . ."

I was surprised by the statement, "Uh . . . okay . . ." I was baffled, and I didn't know how to react. I simply sighed and looked ahead, not even bothering to move his arm, which was wrapped around my shoulders. I suddenly stopped, looking at a bright, neon blue sign in the fading sunlight that read "Ben & Jerry's". Loki looked at me, confused by my sudden halt. I paid no heed to his confusion and said to myself, "Ice cream sounds really good right now. . ." I smiled a bit and looked to Loki, "Want some ice cream?"

He raised an eyebrow, "Ice cream?"

I nodded, "Yeah! It's really good! Ever had any?"

He shook his head, "I don't believe I have."

I gasped and placed my hands on his shoulders, looking at him squarely in the eyes, "You poor, deprived soul. But do not fret! We shall fix your sad, sorry state and get you some ice cream!" He looked at me, confused by my sudden mood swing, but before he could reply, I exclaimed, "Well, come on then! Let's go!" I grabbed hold of his wrist and darted towards the shop, dragging the poor, surprised, and confused God after me. Once inside, I let go of him and walked up to the counter, "I'll have a chocolate and vanilla ice cream cone and," I trailed off and glanced back at Loki, who was standing behind me, looking curiously at the buckets of ice cream. "What ice cream do you want?"

He looked up at me, "What? Oh, the same thing you are having, I suppose."

I nodded and relayed the order to the woman at the counter. I paid the money to the cashier, and by that time more people were waiting in line. I stepped away from the counter, gently tugging Loki towards me. He looked at me, surprised that I moved him. "When we place an order, we step back while waiting so that other people can order," I explained softly.

He gave me a curt nod, "I see." He looked around the shop, looking at the soda machine curiously. I giggled softly at his overall reaction, but at the same time, I felt pity for him. Everything around him must have seemed so strange to him. I wondered if he ever felt lost or homesick when stuck in such a strange world. I soon grew tired of standing and plopped down in a wooden chair, resting my elbows on the round table.

Loki soon joined me, sitting down in the chair across from me. "How long is it going to take?" he asked impatiently.

I giggled, "Should be done in about. . ." I stopped when the boisterous voice of the cashier called out my order, "Now!" I finished with a smile. I got up and walked over to the counter, grabbing the ice cream and a couple of napkins. "Here you go!" I proclaimed, handing Loki an ice cream cone and a napkin. I sat down in the chair again and started eating my own ice cream cone. I looked at Loki expectantly, watching him eye it with and odd stare, and then gingerly taste it. "Well? How is it?"

He widened his eyes slightly, "It is surprisingly good for Midgardian food."

I grinned, "Of course it is! Dessert is the best kind of food anywhere!"

He chuckled, "True."

I smiled brightly at him and continued happily eating my ice cream. I soon finished it and started munching on the cone itself. I suddenly let out a happy exclamation, "Oh my God!"

Loki raised an eyebrow, surprised by my outburst, "What is it?"

"They put chocolate at the bottom of the cone!" I answered in a sing-song voice.

He smiled, chuckling at my excitement, "What a pleasant surprise."

I giggled, "I know, right!" He had soon finished his cone after me, and I leaned back in my chair, a content smile on my face.

Loki smiled softly at me, "I am glad to see you happy again."

"Really? Thanks! Ice cream always makes me feel better! Wanna know why?"

"Why?"

"Because stressed spelled backwards is desserts!"

He paused, probably spelling it mentally, and chuckled, "You're right! I have never noticed that before."

I smiled, "Yeah, it's amazing how we all easily miss the small details in life when we don't look closely enough."

"Indeed."

I glanced out the window, seeing the sky turn to a pitch black, "Wow, it's already dark out."

Loki nodded, "So it is. . ." I could detect a faint hint of sorrow in his voice.

"Time sure does fly."

He sighed, "Sadly. . ." I glanced at him, and his eyes were closed, "I do not wish to leave, though."

I widened my eyes slightly and hesitated before saying, "Same here. . ." He looked at me, obviously surprised by my statement, but I continued talking, "We could do this again tomorrow, maybe."

He smiled, "I'd like that. . ."

"Me too." I stood up, "But we should probably head out now in case we get kicked out."

He chuckled softly, also standing up, "Very well. I can walk you home, if you wish. . ."

I smiled, "Sure!" He offered me an arm and I took it. Before we walked out, though, he hesitated a moment before leaning in and giving me a kiss on the cheek. I blushed, not expecting such an action, and then, out of reflex, I tried hiding the obvious pink tint on my cheeks. I believed it was futile, though, because I could tell by the smile on Loki's face that he had seen it.

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**Ah, nothing like a little "ice cream date" between a God of Mischief and a crazy, psychotic pyromaniac to sweeten things up. XD**


	15. Chapter 14

**Hey everyone! Here's the next update for the story! Enjoy!**

Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC Robin.

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"You're blushing, Robin," Loki whispered in my ear with a chuckle.

The sound of his whisper only made me blush even more, "Oh. . ." Once again, I looked away shyly, trying to hide my blush by putting my hands over my cheeks. I was so unused to people seeing me blush like that. It felt so weird, strange, and most certainly awkward.

Loki gently lifted my chin up so that I was directly facing him. "Do not hide," he said softly, "it is actually kind of cute. . ."

I widened my eyes in surprise, the blush returning again. "R-really?"

He smiled, "Yes, really." We locked eyes for a moment, his face only mere inches away from mine.

"Store's closed," the annoyed cashier growled from the light brown counter, "Get your butts moving!"

Loki looked over to the woman, his eyes narrowed in a menacing glare. I rolled my eyes, "All right, all right! We're going!" I grumbled a few insulting words to the woman in Russian and headed out of the shop, gently tugging Loki along with me.

Once outside, he muttered, "Well, that was irritatingly rude. Couldn't she have waited a bit longer?"

I shrugged, "It's New York, what do you expect? The people here are always moody. Besides, she probably wanted to go home already."

"Mortals. I will never understand them," he said, shaking his head.

I giggled, "Yeah, we're pretty confusing!"

He smiled at me, "But I understand you fairly well."

"Oh really?"

"To an extent."

I smiled, "Okay then. What's my favorite activity?"

He grinned, "If you can't scare or prank people, you enjoy creating explosions." I widened my eyes and he chuckled, "Nailed it, didn't I?"

"To every little detail. . ."

Loki chuckled and pulled me closer to him, wrapping an arm around me. "Shall we continue, then?"

I blushed and smiled; suddenly shy with the attention he gave me, "With walking home?" I asked quietly. "Sure." He chuckled softly at my quiet response and we started making our way back to Stark Tower, walking as slowly as humanly possible. I leaned into him as we walked, and I felt him gently kiss the top of my head as he held me close to him.

Unfortunately, our walk to the tower was fairly short, and we reached it in a matter of minutes. We stood in front of the entrance, and Loki sighed sadly, "I suppose I'll have to leave you at this point. . ."

I nodded and replied solemnly, "Yeah."

He looked at me for a few moments in silence before speaking up. "Before I leave," he said softly, "I will leave you with something to think about."

I looked up at him curiously, "Oh yeah? And what would that be?" He smiled and wrapped his arms around my waist, leaning in and giving me a soft kiss on the lips. I turned bright red, not knowing exactly how to react. I felt him smile against my lips before breaking away and slowly letting go of me. I was still pretty red from blushing, and I didn't quite know what to say at all. Loki chuckled softly at my surprised expression, and then, with a charming smile and a wink, he vanished into thin air. I stood there for a few moments, gathering in my mind all that had happened that night, and then smiled slightly. I was still blushing by the time I entered the building, so I looked down, using my black hair to help me hide my face.

But then I heard Ayame, "Hey Robin!" she called cheerily, and then faltered, "What's wrong?"

I looked up, my vision filled with black and purple streaks from my hair, "What do you mean?"

"You're walking with your head down. Move your hair outta the way!" I sighed and reluctantly complied, and, of course, the pink tint of the blush was still there. She saw this and smiled, "So . . . who is he?"

I decided to try and play dumb, "Who's who?"

She rolled her eyes, "The guy that made you blush, silly!"

"Oh . . . just an old friend of mine. . ."

"Will I get to meet him?"

"Not anytime soon!" I shot back, annoyed at her questions. Before she could ask me another intruding question, I said quickly, "I'm tired, 'night!" And I stormed off towards my room. I didn't want to be stuck in a situation where I'd have to explain the truth again. I was pretty sure that if anyone ever got wind of what was going on between Loki and me, that I would be dead. And I was pretty sure that Steve would have been the one to kill me.


	16. Chapter 15

**All right, here's the next chapter! Sorry it took me so long to update today, I went up to see a car show and it took all morning. Lots of driving involved. XD Aside from that, though, I found my OC's dream car and some other cool looking stuff, so that was fun! Anyway, back to the story!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC Robin.**

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Yet again, I found that I simply could not sleep. The only difference was now I was not restless. It was quite the opposite, really. There was a sense of blissful excitement within me, and there was an odd, but warm feeling I felt. I couldn't help but constantly think about Loki, our most recent encounter, and that kiss. _Gah! I've been turned into a giggling, teenage girl! _I thought with slight dismay, _I thought that being an adult now would get me past that stage! _I sighed, but it didn't really feel that awful. It was actually kind of nice having something to look forward to in my day. I smiled softly, but silently cursed my excitement. I was unused to such a feeling, and I didn't know my own opinion on it yet. On one hand, it was a nice emotion overall, but on the other hand it was annoying that I couldn't sleep.

I sighed and wrapped my comforter tightly around me, closing my eyes and trying to relax and calm down. Thankfully, sleep eventually found me as I fell into a relaxed breathing pattern. I slept dreamlessly. In the morning, I yawned and opened my eyes, seeing the warm light filter in through my window. I glanced over at my digital alarm clock and widened my eyes. "Shit! I'm late!" I leaped out of bed, throwing on the nearest clothes I could find, haphazardly brushing my tangled mass of hair and reapplying any streaks of violet that were faded. Once I was satisfied with my hair, I ran down to the kitchen. Today was going to be a busy day. Today we'd get the results of the evidence for the break-in.

I was hopping awkwardly down the stairs, trying to pull on my black knee-high socks as I went down. I stepped wrong and slid down the rest of the stairs, getting my last sock on completely. I cursed silently at myself and stood up, smoothing out my shirt and glancing over to the kitchen table. All of the other Avengers were already sitting around the large, round table and were eating their breakfast. They all immediately stopped eating and stared in my direction, obviously hearing me trip down the stairs. My face turned red under their gaze, embarrassed from my utter fail at going downstairs. Stark raised an eyebrow, "Overslept?"

I nodded, straining to keep myself from entirely freaking out about how everyone looked at me, "Yeah, a bit. . ." I avoided eye contact and kept myself busy by fixing an egg sandwich with a few slices of ham on it. Once it was cooked, I sat down between Natasha and Ayame. I just stared at my plate as I silently ate my breakfast.

Natasha glanced at me, "So, you've got a villain talking in your head?"

I looked at her and sighed, "You heard, huh?"

"Yeah, Steve told me when I asked where you were." She looked at me, slight worry in her eyes, "You gonna be okay?"

"What? Oh, yeah. It's not like he's threatening me or anything." I glanced over at Steve, who was munching on come Cheerios, and grinned teasingly, saying in a louder voice, "The worst he's done so far is hint that he wants to have sex with me."

Steve's head snapped up, his eyes bugging out, "WHAT?!" He looked so terribly frightened at that comment.

I tried to keep a straight face and continued, "Yeah, might even be bondage." Steve stared at me, completely and utterly speechless, it seemed like he wanted to say something, but he could only open and close his mouth like a fish out of water. All of the color drained from his face and the poor man looked like he was about to faint at any second now. I couldn't help myself and cracked up laughing. "I'm only kidding, Stevey!"

The other Avengers were just as speechless as Steve was, each with overwhelmingly comical looks on their faces, but they had lightened up and started busting up laughing. "Wow, she really had you going there, Capsicle!" Stark teased and lightly hit my shocked brother in the arm. Steve was still speechless.

Loki laughed, _I do believe you gave your brother a heart attack!_

I giggled, trying to get my breath back a little from laughing so hard, _Yeah, I think I did! _"Sorry, Steve, but I just couldn't help myself. I just had to troll you like that!"

Steve let out a sigh of relief and slumped back in his chair, "You scared me there for a moment! I thought that you actually meant it!"

I grinned, "That was the plan!"

"I will admit, it was a very convincing act," Natasha giggled.

I mock bowed, "Thank you, thank you. I'll be here all week!"

Some color returned to Steve's face and he relaxed a bit, "Well, you got me, Robin!"

I giggled, "You're damn right I did! Man, you should've seen the look on your face! It was priceless!"

Natasha laughed for a little bit more before going back to the original subject, "So you're okay then?" she asked, looking at me in the eye.

I nodded, "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

"Because he could've driven you insane with his constant talking."

_Now, that's not true! _Loki protested, _I haven't driven you insane._

I giggled, "Yeah, he likes to talk a lot, but I've grown used to it." _If you had succeeded at driving me insane, you would've known it by now._

_I see._

"Is it weird?" Ayame asked, sincerely curious.

I nodded, "A bit. It was definitely a shock at first, but it's not too strange now."

She nodded, "Ah, okay."

I finished my sandwich and quickly downed a glass of milk before standing up. "So, we ready to go catch some criminals?"

"Actually," Steve said, "We're splitting the team up for a bit now. Some of us will be going out to find Loki, and some of us will see to this break-in." He paused and looked to me, "Has he hinted anything to you about where he is?"

"Like he would do that," I mumbled, and then spoke up, "No, not at all."

Steve nodded, "Worth a try on asking. . ." He turned to the others, "Thor, Ayame, Clint, and Bruce, you guys can do a sweep around the area and try to find Loki." All four of them nodded and headed out. Steve looked to all who were left, "While they're out there looking for him, we can get started with tracking down the convicts." Natasha and Stark left to go suit up. I was already suited up for the most part and sat down to pull on my boots. Just as I was about to walk out the door after Natasha and Stark, Steve gripped my shoulder to stop me, gently, but also firmly. "Oh, and Robin? Please don't joke about what he says to you."

I looked him in the eyes and nodded, "I know. I really am sorry about that, but it slipped out of my mouth before I thought about it."

"I know. It's just . . . I'm worried about you, Robin."

I gave him a reassuring smile, "I'll be fine, Steve. Don't worry, I have everything under control."

"I hope so. . ." He let go of my shoulder and followed after the other two who were waiting for us.

I overheard Stark say to Steve, "Oh, relax, Captain, she's twenty seven, she can handle herself!" I silently thanked him for that comment.

"I know, but it still worries me."

I hung back for a bit, drowning in my own sea of worried thoughts. _Yep. That settles it. I'm dead if he finds out._

_I would not let him kill you, _Loki said softly.

_Thanks. Hopefully we won't have to worry about that, _I replied quietly, and then I sighed and walked towards the group. I said nothing as I crawled into the back seat of a black car and buckled myself in. I stared out the window absently as the car started and we drove away.


	17. Chapter 16

**Hey everyone! So here's another chapter and everything. Now, the story on here is caught up with everything I already have written down, so the time between updates is going to slow down.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC Robin.**

* * *

On the way to the facility, we ran into an abnormal amount of traffic problems. They ranged from unbearably slow drivers, to the ones who were so impatient that they were riding on the very back of our car, to unfixed roads, construction areas, even a large amount of kids who just didn't know how to cross the road, and, not to mention the normal, everyday traffic jam that the main street always got in New York. It was extremely irritating, and by the time we finally reached the facility, I was put into a foul mood. Patience never was my virtue. I snarled and mumbled to myself angrily about how people these days just couldn't drive as I jumped out of the car and stormed inside. The others went ahead of me to the lab, and I decided that it was in everyone's best interest to stay back in the lobby and let out a bit of steam, lest I destroy the whole lab in my fury. I paced around, trying to keep myself from exploding, but I only managed to frustrate myself more just for the sheer fact that I couldn't calm myself down. To be honest, I felt pretty pathetic for that fact. I stopped when I heard someone speak, "What seems to be the matter?"

I grumbled in an irritated voice, "I hate people." I was caught a little off guard by this voice, I had isolated myself from everyone pretty well. How could someone sneak in here without me knowing?

The unidentified man chuckled, "You don't hate me, though." Before I could turn around to face stranger, I felt arms wrap around me in a hug from behind. I was about to hit this stranger and throw him across the room for this action, but I stopped, noticing the golden arm guards. I turned my head to face the man, and sure enough, there stood Loki, but with no disguise this time. He smiled and kissed my cheek, "Hello there, Robin."

"Uh . . . hi. . ." I said quietly, "What are you doing here out in plain sight?"

"I could easily tell you were upset, so I figured a visit would improve your mood. Besides, you are fairly well isolated at the moment, and none of your friends would dare to disturb you when you're mad."

I nodded slowly, "True. . ."

He chuckled, "Of course it's true." He turned me around so that I was facing him and kissed me.

I blushed a deep red and giggled a bit, "Uh. . ."

He smiled, chuckling at my blush, "It appears that I was right."

I laughed, "Oh really?"

"But then again, I'm always right," Loki said with a smug grin.

"Just for that," I said with a smile, "I'm going to find at least one time where you were wrong!"

He laughed, "Good luck with that, mortal."

I giggled, "Don't need luck, I've got stubbornness and ninja skills on my side."

"Oh?" he asked teasingly, "Is that so?"

"Yeah! I'm like an escape artist!"

He grinned at me mischievously, "Shall we put that to the test, then?"

I smiled at him, about to reply, but paused and thought for a moment. "Maybe later," I said, "right now I actually need to help with the investigation, now that I'm not, you know, exploding or anything."

Loki sighed, "Very well." He wrapped his arms around me in a tight hug, holding me close for a few moments. "I shall see you later," he said, gently kissing my forehead.

I smiled softly, "Okay." I said a quiet farewell to him as he vanished into thin air yet again. I stood there for a few moments, trying to regain my composure, for the God of Mischief managed to turn me into pudding with his charming personality and captivating looks. Once I recovered from his surprise visit, I ran down the hallway to meet up with the others. "So, what do we have?" I asked, entering the room they were all in.

Stark thrust his thumb towards a computer screen filled with many open tabs with black backgrounds and green wording, "All on there, Sparky."

I nodded and walked to the computer, peering at the screen and widening my eyes a bit from shock that I shouldn't have had. The DNA from the hair sample I had picked up at the crime scene was an exact match to Loki. I tried to hold in my cry of surprise, but suppressing it only managed to make me let out a strangled growl instead. I should have known. He wasn't just going to suddenly stop his antics because of one simple change of attitude towards one measly mortal. I felt so stupid. I looked back to the others, straining to keep my voice as calm and normal as possible, "So, looks like a certain God of Mischief isn't quite done messing with us."

Steve nodded, "Seems like it."

"Might as well help the others look for him, now that Robin's here," Stark said, "He's probably using the convicts for his own personal gain. We find him, we find the convicts."

I nodded, still slightly upset that I could have believed such a stupid notion that Loki had changed. Steve had noticed my discomfort, "Robin, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," I said quickly, trying to resume my normally stoic expression.

Steve nodded, but I could tell by the look on his face that he wasn't convinced, "Well, we should probably start our search then, do a sweep around the city and everything."

"Right," I said, burying my feelings, "Let's go, then." I walked out into the busy city without even pausing for the others to catch up. I practically ran down the sidewalk, swerving around the large crowds of people. There were still a few things I had to do before starting the search.


	18. Chapter 17

**Well, here's another chapter everybody! So here's kind of how this new updating thing will work out: Whenever I finish a chapter, I'll type it up and put it up here as soon as possible. Normally, it takes at least one or two days to finish a chapter since I'm given my whole Study Hall to do nothing. XD Hopefully I don't have to keep you guys waiting with this.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC Robin.**

* * *

I crouched in the shadows of the SHIELD Headquarters, cautiously looking around for guards. I did my best to avoid the security cameras as I looked for one room in particular. Fury's office. _Sneaking around your own base? _Loki asked. _That's not suspicious at all._

I dived behind a corner and hid in a dark room as a guard passed by. _Loki, please, just be quiet! I'm trying to concentrate._

I was about to continue sneaking, but stayed put when he asked, _Why all the secrecy? It is an ally's headquarters, is it not?_

I rolled my eyes, _Yes, it is._

_Then what are you sneaking around for?_

I looked down, _I . . . uh . . . I still haven't given those keys back. . ._

He started laughing, _You haven't? I thought you would have by now! How forgetful are you?_

My face turned red from embarrassment, _Sh-shut up! _

His laugh eventually died down to a soft chuckle, and then to nothing at all, _My apologies._

I sighed quietly, _Yeah, well, the sooner I get this done the better. If I get caught, I'm dead meat. So I need to concentrate, okay?_

_I understand, _he said softly, _but I wouldn't let them kill you. _I had a hard time believing his words at the moment, so I said nothing and continued with my self-appointed mission. Eventually, through a maze of corridors, security cameras, locked doors, and guards, I found his office. I slowly made my way across the pitch black room.

Just as I was about to set the keys carefully down in a drawer of his ebony desk, the lights turned on. I flinched back, squinting my eyes in pain from the sudden light that hit my poor eyes. My heart froze as I heard a voice growl, "Miss Rogers! What the hell are you doing in my office?!" I opened my eyes and winced at Fury's glare. _Oh shit._

I laughed nervously, "Uh . . . well . . . you see I-"

"Are those my limo keys?" he interrupted.

I flinched at the sound of his voice, "Yeah. . ."

"So _you_ had them this whole time!" I looked at Fury and quickly looked away. If looks could kill, I would have died fifty times just by looking at his glare.

"Yeah. . ."

He put a hand to his forehead in frustration, "Did you drive it?"

"What?"

"Did you drive it?" he repeated, his voice getting louder.

I grimaced, "Yeah."

He narrowed his eyes, noticing my terrified expression, "How bad is it?"

I scrunched my face up, taking in an inward breath before saying quietly, "Well I may have totaled it. . ."

"WHAT?!" I heard him scream. I opened my eyes hesitantly, only wincing again. The glare in his eyes made it look like he was planning my murder.

I couldn't handle being in that situation any longer and panicked, making a last minute escape plan. "What was that?" I asked quickly, pretending to hear something. "I think I hear Steve calling. Gotta go! Bye!" I threw the limo keys at him and ran for dear life. Fury fumbled with them for a moment before putting them in his pocket and casing after me, screaming how he was going to kill me for what I had done. I had blocked out his screaming, my mind busying itself with only one order repeating over and over in my mind. Run. I swerved around the corners of the hallways, trying to find my way out of the maze once again, only this time with Fury hot on my heels like a dog from hell.

Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity of running, I made my way out of the base, not even stopping my mad dash as I ran into a dark alleyway to lose the line of sight. I glanced back and skidded to a halt when I noticed that Fury had finally stopped chasing me, probably not wanting to bother himself with trying to find me on the streets. I sat down with my back against the wall of the alley, panting as I tried to get my breath back from my frenzied run.

"Are you all right?" I heard the all too familiar voice of Loki ask.

I shook my head, still shaken up, "No, no I'm not! I've never seen him so mad. . ." I paused and then glared up at him, "And you!" I exclaimed, "You said that you wouldn't let him kill me! Where were you?"

He looked at me and replied softly, "I didn't show up because I knew that you could handle it. Besides, me showing up seemingly out of nowhere and whisking you away to who knows where would only get you into more trouble." I relaxed slightly, and he took this opportunity to sit down beside me. "Besides," he said with a smile, "He wouldn't kill an Avenger now, would he?"

"I don't know," I said quietly, "I think I've been causing more trouble than it's worth keeping me around."

Loki looked at me for a few moments in silence before pulling me into a hug, "Don't say that."

"But it's true," I grumbled, "I'm a lazy bitch, I'm moody, I procrastinate majorly, I have a large history of crime, I steal things, break into their houses for the hell of it, and I just do nothing but cause trouble." I paused, thinking over what I had just said, and then added, "Hell, I don't even know why they put up with me when all I do is create more problems."

"They put up with you," he murmured softly, "because they know how wonderful you really are, even if you don't see it yourself. They don't care what you did in the past because it did not affect who you turned out to be."

I looked away, mumbling, "They'd think differently if they actually knew about my past, though." All they did know was that I had lived on the streets as a child in Russia. I wasn't ready to tell them anything else.

He cupped a hand around my chin, gently moving my head so that I had to look at him, "Like I had said earlier, your past doesn't change who you are now." I was about to say something in reply, but I heard a group of people in the distance faintly calling my name. Loki sighed, "I suppose I'll have to leave you now, but don't forget about what I just told you, all right?" I nodded slightly and he kissed my cheek before vanishing. I stood up, letting out a small sigh before heading out. Once again, I was conflicted. I knew that I should've caught him and turned him in to help solve this convict problem, but for some reason I couldn't.

Soon, I met up with the rest of the group. "There you are!" Steve exclaimed, "You just ran off all of the sudden."

"Yeah, I just remembered that I had to return something to Fury," I said. Well, it wasn't a complete lie, only a half truth. It was a reason I ran off, but it was not the main reason. I ran off because of my stupid, emotionally unstable brain. Of course, I'd never tell Steve that. He'd be constantly asking me why I was sad or something like that. Siblings. Can't live with them, can't live without them.

"How did that go?" I heard him ask.

I winced, remembering the look on Fury's face, "Awful!"

Steve nodded, "Well, you ready to go meet up with the rest of the search party?"

"Yeah." I fell into step with Steve as we all headed downtown, ignoring the fairly curious stares of people as they saw a group of superheroes, Earth's Mightiest Heroes, as they called us, casually walking down the sidewalk as if nothing was going on. Even though there were so many things going on that I was surprised that the city hadn't fallen into chaos yet.

Steve glanced at me, "You gonna be okay?"

I looked up at him, "Yeah. I'm fine." I went over what Loki had said to me earlier, and smiled ever so slightly. Damn, he had such a way with words.


	19. Chapter 18

**Okay, so here's the next chapter! It's kind of long compared to some, but oh well. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC Robin.**

* * *

I sighed, staring out of the window in Stark Tower, overlooking the city of New York. The spring air made it seem peaceful, but we knew that it wasn't going to last. But just by the way it looked, it seemed like, even though we knew there were escaped convicts, the city wasn't in danger. There had been no attacks yet. But yet was a key word there, as I always said. It was only a matter of time before Loki would make his attack. I came to understand the fact that, although he seemed to have an obviously apparent fondness for me, that he was still a villain, and, therefore, would still do villainous things. It didn't bother me too much anymore. What bothered me was the fact that I still didn't quite know which side I was meant to be one. Good. Evil. Hero. Villain. None of those titles seemed to fit me at all. I sighed, maybe I'd just settle for being the anti-hero at the moment, it seemed to be the only thing that fit me.

We had scoured the city yesterday and there was still no sign of Loki or those convicts. Either he's really good a hiding, or they're not hiding in New York. I ruled out hiding in another dimension when, only mere hours ago, he broke into the prison again and released six more convicts. That was a total of thirty convicts now. Those were not very good odds for us. I wondered how he kept them all under control. He probably managed it with the promise of freedom, either that, or he used that scepter that controlled people's minds. I walked over to the couch and sat down, tossing a black and purple rubber ball up and down. "Another break-out and we're no closer," I sighed, "Remind me to never be a cop. I suck at this."

"To be fair," Steve said, "We aren't working under normal circumstances either."

I sighed, "I know, I know." I looked to Thor, "Any ideas on what he's planning?"

Thor sighed, "I do not know, it seems so random and irregular, it does not make sense."

I sat back in the couch, stroking my chin in thought as if there was an invisible beard on my face. I knew the reason that the break-outs were so random, and that was because Loki was taking time out of his scheming to visit me, but even I didn't know his plan. "Hmm . . . maybe he's using the convicts to launch another attack on New York. . . He probably figured that the prisoners would be rather pissed about being locked up," I thought out loud.

"Then why wouldn't he use the Chitauri again?" Stark asked.

"They probably lost faith in him," I responded, "I mean, he failed once, who's to say he won't fail again, right?" I paused, "Besides, he'd need the Tesseract to open the portal. Did he manage to snatch it on his way out, Thor?"

Thor shook his head, "No, it is still under Asgardian protection."

"So that means he had only one option, and that was to strike a deal with the criminals here on Earth."

Stark nodded, "And with the criminals he'd have an army driven with fury and hatred. They'd have a personal reason to fight on his side."

"Which makes matters even worse," Steve agreed, "People go to great lengths to get their revenge."

I nodded but said nothing. I knew from personal experience how far revenge could drive a being. I still hadn't quite fulfilled my vow of revenge that I had made years ago, but I was afraid that I was not quite strong enough for such a large task. I couldn't take Hydra on alone, but I didn't want to drag any of my newfound friends into that mess with me. My troubled thoughts were interrupted by an explosion in the distance. "That's not good," I stated rather obviously as we quickly headed out to investigate. By the time we reached the site of the explosion, it was utter chaos. People were running down the streets in a massive frenzy as a sea of orange jumpsuits only prisoners would wear was flooding out. The prison itself was broken and in large, raging flames. The fire needed to be put out before it spread across the city.

I looked to Steve and shouted, "I'm going to control the fire, cover me!" He nodded and held his shield at the ready. I looked to the building. It was a massive fire, almost entirely engulfing the prison. This was going to take a bit more concentration. I closed my eyes and slowly raised my arms, mentally calling the fire to me as if it were alive. I felt it's warmth as it slowly snaked over, spiraling around me and occasionally hitting my pale skin. The flames didn't burn me, however. I took a deep breath before slowly forcing it into a tight fireball, clasping my hands together and depriving it of oxygen so that it went out. I slumped slightly after I had finished with the flames, panting from the effort. That took more energy than I had wanted. I looked up, already seeing a few convicts knocked out from Steve and the others.

Ayame looked to me, "Okay, that fire thing was awesome, but you know I could have iced it, right?"

I looked at her for a few moments, and then slapped my forehead as if to try and compensate for my stupidity. I completely forgot that Ayame had the power to control ice, the polar opposite of my own power. "Dammit! Forgot about that!"

She laughed, "Wow, Robin, just wow."

"Oh, shut it!" When I recovered from my previous action, I launched myself into our weird, little, round-up battle. But, of course, once again I ran into battle without thinking, like always, and was soon pinned against the wall by a convict.

The man looked at me, his almost black eyes cold and cruel, scars all over his face and bald head. He grinned at me, showing me an oh so elegant display of horrifically rotten teeth. He held a serrated combat knife to my neck, threating to easily slice open my tiny, rather insignificant looking neck. "Any last words?" he sneered.

I looked away, the acrid stench of breath that hadn't been seen to for years hitting my poor nose like a wave of sludge. I gagged, my face scrunched up in disgust, "Yeah, your breath stinks!" I kneed him where it hurt and kicked his stomach as he recoiled. Before he could get a chance to recover from staggering, I punched him in the face, hard enough to knock him out. Once I was sure that he was out for the count, I ran back out into the streets to help the others out. It was pure chaos. I leaped into battle beside Ayame, helping her fend of the convicts with swift kicks and punches. She was freezing them into place with her ice power. I didn't dare use my own flames because it would have surely melted the ice. "So," I said as I batted away a rather small and skinny convict, "Where's the man behind all of this?"

Ayame shrugged, ice shooting from her fingertips as she froze another prisoner in place. "Um," she said, looking around when we had a small break from fighting, and then pointed ahead of her, "Right there!"

I looked up in the direction of where she was pointing, and, sure enough, there stood Loki in his green, black, and gold armor, wearing that weird, gilded cockroach-reindeer helmet thing. "So," I called out to him, "Dabbling in a bit of explosive-making are you? Or did you just manage to make the building spontaneously combust?"

Loki chuckled and winked at me, "You'll have to figure that out yourself, mortal."

Ayame looked at Loki, and then at me, her expression filled with confusion. She looked like she wanted to ask what the wink was about, but asked something else instead, "What should we do?" she whispered to me.

"Simple," I whispered back to her, "Keep him busy until we get the convicts temporarily locked away until the prison gets fixed."

"How do we do that?"

I grinned, "Just follow my lead." I cupped my hands around my mouth and shouted to Loki, "Hey! Reindeer Games! What's with your helmet? It looks so stupid! What are you, King of the Cockroaches or something?"

He narrowed his eyes, "What?"

Ayame giggled, "And what's with this stupid attack plan? Isn't World Domination kind of been there done that? We'll still kick your sorry ass!"

"And throw it across the room," I added, "because we're master ninjas!"

He stalked up to us in annoyance and grabbed me by the collar of my shirt, lifting me up into the air. Damn, he was strong. Although, it may have helped a bit that I was tiny and extremely short for my age. "I will not be talked to that way," he said, teeth clenched.

I looked into his narrowed, green eyes. _Sorry, Loki, _I said to him mentally, _nothing personal, but I can't let you destroy New York or something like that. You know how it is. _I said out loud, quietly, "You wouldn't hurt me."

Loki looked into my eyes and sighed, _I know, but did you have to thwart me that way?_

_I'm a troll, I like to annoy people and finding a different way to distract you would seem suspicious. That was something I would have said a while ago, so. . ._

_I get it. _He gently lowered me, setting me back on my feet and letting go of my shirt collar, "You're right," he said quietly, "I wouldn't."

Ayame looked to the two of us, completely puzzled, "What's going on here?" she asked innocently.

I looked over to her, "Uh . . . it's kind of a long story. . ."

She nodded, "We've got time."

Loki and I shared a glance, "Um . . ." I said, "I don't quite know how to explain it. . ." I silently cursed my awful social skills.

He chuckled softly, "That's all right, Robin."

I sighed and after a moment of thinking, I told Ayame everything that had happened. If I didn't tell her now, she'd only ask later. I told her about what happened after he healed me, which was not much to tell, really. And what happened when I went out for that walk. Everything. After I had explained it all, she looked at us with wide eyes, "So, that means. . ."

"Yep," I said quietly, and then added, "Please don't tell Steve!"

She giggled, "I won't! Your secret's safe with me."

I let out a sigh of relief, "Thanks."

She smiled, "No problem."


	20. Chapter 19

**Hey everyone! Here's the next chapter! Again, it's another rather long one. I've kind of been getting better at judging how long a chapter will be when it comes to the amount of words in it and everything. I've learned that four to five pages in a notebook, using both sides, tends to be around 1,000 or more pages, but it also depends on how much dialogue is in there too and everything.** **Anyway, enough of my rambling, enjoy this next chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC Robin.**

* * *

Eventually, during the time that I was explaining my relationship with Loki to Ayame, the rest of the team managed to round up the injured, frozen, or unconscious convicts and got them temporarily locked away. The police planned to rebuild the prison to be strong enough so that our previous incident wouldn't happen again. Ayame and I let Loki go. Why? Because we are two hopelessly romantic females who have issues. We didn't tell anyone about that, though. They'd get suspicious and angry at us if we did. We figured that Loki wouldn't try anything funny for a while. Only time would tell us if we were right or not. Now, we all sat in the shawarma joint that Stark had mentioned after the Chitauri Invasion years ago. We pretty much made it a tradition to eat shawarma after a victory. It felt only natural that we should, considering we dined on the food after our first big victory as a team.

Stark happily munched on his shawarma, still partially in his Iron Man suit. "Nothing like shawarma after kicking ass, right?"

Thor nodded in agreement, his eyes shining at the prospect of this wonderful food that none of us had ever heard of before Stark introduced us to it. "Another!" he exclaimed rather loudly, slamming the empty red basket on the wooden table.

I jumped a bit in my chair at the sudden clang of plastic hitting something solid and nearly breaking. I was so surprised, that I had almost thrown my shawarma across the room in reflex. "God, you've gotta stop doing that," I complained, "One of these days, you'll break the table, and then we won't be allowed to eat here anymore!"

Ayame giggled, "Oh relax, Robby, it's not that bad!"

I sighed, "Well, at least it's not glass. . ." I heard that the first time he was at a diner when he was cast out to Earth for arrogance, as he said, that he threw a glass coffee cup on the floor and it shattered. I didn't want that to happen here, not on my watch anyway.

_Does it bother you, mortal? _Loki asked.

_A bit, yeah. Scares the shit outta me, actually._

_I know what you mean. I've had to deal with that for ten thousand years._

_Oh wow . . . I feel so sorry for you._

Thor simply shrugged and gulped down some soda obnoxiously loud. His table manners were atrocious to say the least. He ate like a Viking who hadn't eaten for days. Although, I suppose his horrible manners made some sense, since Vikings had followed his mythology a long time ago. I looked to Ayame and mouthed, "How do you find _that _cute?" I subtly gestured my thumb to Thor, whose blond beard was caked with shawarma bits. She simply giggled, shrugged, and resumed eating. I looked to Thor, the bits of food all over his face greatly bothering me. I know, I didn't have room to talk, I was much worse when I had lived on the streets in Russia, but I was raised by Captain America, and he was a big nut when it came to manners, I suppose it rubbed off on me. "Uh, Thor? You got something in your beard."

He looked up to me, his blue eyes filled with puzzlement, "I do? Where?"

"Everywhere." I threw a couple of white napkins at him, "Wipe your face off, you barbarian!"

He chuckled and complied, "My apologies."

I rolled my eyes, "Try not to stuff your face next time. There's plenty of time to enjoy your damn shawarma."

Loki chuckled, _It's impossible for him to eat slowly._

_Yeah, you're probably right, but it was worth a shot. _I sat back in my chair, satisfyingly patting my stomach, "Well, I'm stuffed. I think I have a food baby."

Ayame laughed, "Oh really? When's it due?"

I looked to her and said in a serious tone, "In a few hours. It'll probably look like shit."

She cracked up laughing, and I joined in when I saw the confused looks of everyone else at our random conversation of having a food baby.

"Food baby?" Thor asked, confused at this terminology that no one had ever told him before.

I looked to him and grinned, "Yeah. You know how when you overstuff yourself it makes you look like you're preggers? We call that a food baby when that happens."

Bruce chuckled and shook his head, "You two are so weird."

Ayame and I giggled and said in unison, "Why thank you!"

They looked at us in surprise at our unified voice, it was something that didn't really happen much since Ayame and I aren't very similar. I continued and elaborated, "We take great pride in our weirdness. It is now a reflex to thank someone when they call us weird!"

Ayame smiled brightly, "Indeed!"

I stood up and threw away all of my garbage and then looked to the Avengers, "Ready to go back?" They all nodded and we headed on back to Stark Tower, which had become our unofficial headquarters. Once there, I went right up to my room and plopped down onto my suddenly irresistibly comfortable bed, not even bothering to change out of my rather uncomfortable armor. "I'm exhausted," I said with a sigh to no one in particular.

I heard a chuckle, but I didn't even bother to raise my head from the fluffy pillow. I already knew who it was. "Then why don't you rest?" I heard Loki ask.

"Because it's really hard and uncomfortable to sleep in armor and last time I did that I got a rash," I mumbled.

He chuckled and sat on the edge of the bed, looking at me and giving me one of those super sexy and dazzling smiles, "Then take your armor off."

"I'm too tired to get up," I groaned. The bed was way too comfortable to move away from, anyway.

"Really, Robin?" he shook his head in amusement.

"As I've told you before, I'm lazy."

"Apparently."

I sighed and unstrapped the black, intricately embroidered pouches and sheathes that held my knives and set them on the dark nightstand. "There," I stated, "Now it's slightly more tolerable."

"You're not even going to see to your wounds?"

I looked up at him blankly, my mind giving up on me. I did not recall getting wounds. Perhaps I was too tired to remember. "What?" Out of curiosity, I gently dabbed my index finger on my forehead, removing it and looking at the tip of my finger. It was smeared with bright crimson blood that was still fresh. "You know, I was so tired that I didn't even notice," I said after a few moments of silence.

He looked at me expectantly, as if he wanted me to get up and do something. "And now that you know they're there?"

I shrugged and said absently, "Meh, they'll clot up and heal eventually."

Loki rolled his eyes and gently touched my forehead, the warm and familiar feeling of his magic greeted me as it closed up my wounds. "You really should take better care of your injuries," he said softly.

I shrugged, "I've suffered worse."

He looked at me with deep concern in his green eyes, "How much worse?"

I paused and looked into his eyes, seeing the worry in them. I suddenly realized what I had said and looked away, trying to hold back the shock and pained emotions I felt. I didn't mean to say that, but I acted again without thinking. Sudden images of my back being ripped open cruelly by a cold, hard sword flashed in my mind. The remembrance of the pain that I felt at that time haunted me still, even when the cut on my entire back that went to the bone had healed after weeks of recovery and became a permanent scar. I could not shake that memory, the laughter of the man that had sliced me open still echoed in the back of my mind. I shuddered and closed my eyes, trying to fight back tears that hadn't spilled for years.

Loki noticed my sudden, fearful behavior, "Robin?"

I opened my eyes, the sound of his voice bringing me back to the present and calming me down a bit. I let out a small sigh of slight relief that he snapped me out of my haunted memory and I looked up at him, "It's nothing," I said softly, trying to reassure him as well as myself.

He saw the pain that didn't fully fade from my eyes and obviously wasn't convinced. I figured that he wouldn't be. After all, who could possibly be able to lie to the God of Lies? He sighed, "I will be here if you ever wish to tell me."

I nodded, "Thank you." I felt my exhaustion from the previous battle finally taking over. I yawned and relaxed my tense muscles and closed my eyes, trying to get a bit of sleep.

Loki chuckled slightly, "You're going to sleep now? You're not even going to wash yourself?"

I opened an eye, "Is it bad?"

He laughed, "You're a complete mess."

I slowly sat up and looked in the mirror across from my bed. He was right. There were smears of dirt and ash all over my face and body, and my black hair was grimy and a tangled mess, small bits of debris were in the mix of my wild jungle of hair. There was dried blood caked on my forehead and arms where my cuts had been healed and my eyes were wide, wild, and had unsightly bags under them. I shuddered. It looked like I was a zombie from a horror movie, minus, of course, the rotting flesh. "Oh wow. . ." I looked to Loki, "You couldn't just lie and say that I looked nice?"

He grinned, "I do not think that even I could pull off such a lie."

I sighed, "Fuck you."

He chuckled, "Someone a bit moody from the battle earlier?"

"I look like a fucking zombie right now, what do you think?" I paused, and then slowly stood up, "But at least now I have a reason to get up when I'm obviously dead tired and take a shower. Be right back." I grabbed some fresh clothes from my dresser and walked out to the bathroom. I did as everyone else did in the shower, stand under the warm water and contemplate the universe as I shampooed my hair. I was so exhausted, however, that I almost fell asleep several times while showering. In order to keep myself awake, I lightly sang some of my favorite songs. My voice was scratchy and sore, so I had sounded like a dying whale, so I stopped singing to save everyone else's ears from the horror. I returned to my room afterwards with my skin clean, and my tangled hair wet and free of debris and other unsightly items that might have been in there. I brushed out the tangles and, when I was done, looked to Loki, who was laying on my bed as if he had owned it as well. "There. Better now, Mr. I must worry about people's hygiene when they're dead tired?"

He chuckled at my sarcasm, "Much better."

I rolled my eyes and once again laid down on the bed, snuggling into the comforter and pillow. It felt like a bed made out of pure feathers. Loki smiled and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me closer to him and holding me close. I relaxed in his arms and smiled softly, gently kissing his cheek before snuggling into him and falling asleep.


	21. Chapter 20

**Well, here's the next chapter, everyone! We've reached about twenty chapters now! Yay! Anyway, once again, another long chapter, but it's rather dramatic, so it shouldn't be too bad for it's length. I get carried away when I start writing in my story, ha ha. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC Robin.**

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I was in a dreamy haze. A sleep that was so deep that all noise from outside of my random dream was blocked out. I mumbled softly as I felt something slightly shift from underneath me, in turn, causing me to shift slightly. I heard faint voices in the distance, softly, discussing something which my mortal ears could not hear. Eventually, a single voice got louder and louder until it woke me up entirely. "What the hell is going on here?!" I heard Steve say in a furious and panicked tone.

My eyes snapped open, and, to my utmost surprise and despair, I was still in Loki's arms. I looked up to see him glaring venomously at my brother, who was glaring right back at him in an eternal staring contest of death-glares. "We're dead!" I automatically said, knowing the terrible situation we were in. My previously relaxed breathing was now short and shallow from panic.

They both stopped their fiery stares at each other and looked to me as soon as I had spoken. "Robin," Steve said, looking at me with a mixture of concern and anger, "Are you okay? Did he hurt you?"

"I'm fine, Steve," I replied.

"I would not hurt Robin," Loki inputted softly.

Steve resumed glaring at him, "And how am I supposed to believe a single word you say?" he growled at him, "You lie all of the time! Now let her go!"

Loki narrowed his eyes, a cold expression in them. He slightly tightened his hold on me, "Why should I?" he hissed, "There is no harm being done."

I sighed, I could already tell that this wasn't going to end well. _I should probably step in before they kill each other. _"Loki," I said softly and he looked at me, his harsh expression softening as his eyes met mine, "Might as well do what he says for now, we don't want drama. . ."

He sighed and held me for a few moments longer, murmuring softly, "But I do not want him to take you away from me. . ."

"I know, I know," I said, trying to sound somewhat reassuring, "Let's just talk to him and hope for the best." He sighed and nodded slightly, hesitating before finally letting me go. I gave him a tight hug before standing up and facing Steve.

My brother glared at me, "What's the meaning of this? Why is he in our base?"

I flinched at the sound of his voice, a normally kind and gentle tone was now harsh and cold, almost unrecognizable from the Steve I had known for years. "I . . . uh . . ."

"Why, Robin?" he asked angrily, "Don't you know how reckless and stupid this is?"

The accusation he threw at me like a bullet only made me feel even worse. "Steve. . ."

"And why the hell is he in your room?!" he interrupted.

That was a good question. It was something that I didn't know how to explain to the protective brother. Just then, Ayame rushed in, her hair wild and crazy from sleep. "I heard yelling," she said, slightly panting from her run down the hall, "Who died?" She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Loki. "Oh. . ." she trailed off, her eyes widening. I could tell by the surprise and shock on her face that she didn't tell Steve anything. He must have tried waking me up by knocking on the door, and then going into the room to see why I wasn't responding.

Steve looked to Ayame, still pretty pissed, "Did you know about any of this?"

She looked at him and tried to seem convincing, but she always had a horrible poker face, "Er . . . no."

He knew that she was lying, I could tell just by the look in his eyes, "You did. Why didn't you tell me?"

Ayame winced, "I didn't tell you because I only learned of it yesterday and it wasn't hurting anyone."

He narrowed his eyes, "Not hurting anyone? What would happen when they'd have to fight each other in battle, then?"

I had enough of this conversation and decided to try and sneak my way out. I slowly backed away from the two as they were conversing. _Wanna make a run for it via teleportation?_

Loki subtly nodded, _Sounds good._

_'Kay. _I continued quietly backing up until Steve turned to face me.

"And where do you think you're going? We're not done discussing this!"

I froze in place and replied as smoothly as I could, "Uh, I was going to go to the bathroom."

He glared at me, "It can wait."

I touched my heart and looked at him in faked shock and hurt to try and get him to agree to letting me leave for a "bathroom break". "You'd deprive your poor sister the use of a toilet?"

"You can hold it," he snapped furiously, "Enough of your games! Now sit down and stay put!" I widened my eyes and nodded, once again plopping down on the bed. I was shocked and left speechless. Steve yelled at me. He almost never yelled at anyone! He took a deep breath and said in a strained tone, trying to sound as level as possible, "Can anyone please explain all of this?" he gestured to Loki and me.

We were all silent. We had no clue on what to say. No one had ever seen Steve act this way, even when he had arguments with Stark every now and then he wasn't as mad as he was now. I sighed sadly, _Wanna use that Silver Tongue of yours to help me out, here?_

Loki looked at me and gently took my hand in his, _I'm afraid you'll have to do this alone. I fear that anything I say will make things worse._

_Shit. . ._

He gave me a reassuring pat on the hand he held, _You'll be fine. . ._

I looked up at Steve, whose arms were crossed impatiently. The rather unpleasant scowl on his face worried me and made me doubt myself. "Well," I began hesitantly, "I suppose I can explain it. . ."

Steve raised an eyebrow, "Out with it," he said impatiently.

I sighed, "Well, uh, I . . . we . . . we've been kind of seeing each other like this for a while."

He narrowed his eyes, "Do you even realize the danger that you're putting everyone in?"

I shrunk back, "N-no," I stuttered, "but nothing's happened, right?"

"And you call the prison exploding nothing? What about the Chitauri Invasion? Was that nothing?"

"No! But . . . that happened years ago. . ."

"Oh, and that makes things _so _much better, doesn't it?" he asked sarcastically.

"Things have changed since then," I said quietly, feeling less and less confident every second. Now I knew that this wouldn't end well.

"Apparently they haven't changed enough! That prison attack only happened yesterday. _Yesterday! _Might I remind you who was behind all of that?"

Loki and I both shifted uncomfortably at this statement. "But. . ." I trailed off.

"Can't think of anything to say to that, can you?" Steve shot back. He gave Loki a burning glare, "Get out of here! I don't want to see your face around here anymore!"

Loki narrowed his eyes, and then sighed. He looked to me sadly, "I'm sorry," he said softly, and then gave me a kiss before vanishing. I sighed at the now empty spot beside me.

"And you," Steve growled at me, "You won't be leaving the tower for a long time."

"You're grounding me? I'm twenty seven, you can't ground me anymore!"

"Then think of it as temporary imprisonment," he snarled, slamming the door shut and leaving me to myself. For the first time in many years, I silently cried.


	22. Chapter 21

**Hey everyone! New chapter up already! I got a lot of writing done for this one by the time I finished my last chapter yesterday, so yeah. I've been writing like a maniac recently, because I just got some really good ideas for future chapters and my brain keeps saying, "Must write it down!" XD Anyway, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC Robin.**

* * *

I lay on my stomach on the bed, facing the backboard and resting my head on my crossed arms. I had finished crying a while ago, but my eyes were still puffy and red. I was hiccupping every once in a while from uneven breathing. My nose was runny and I had to constantly sniff to avoid getting up to get a box of tissues. God, I hated crying with a burning passion, and my current state was disgusting to me, however, the idea of never being able to see Loki again saddened me much more than my current, disheveled state. The thought of that upset me much more than it would have years ago. Back then, I would have simply said "good riddance" and moved on with my life, but now I missed him more than I ever thought possible. He couldn't simply teleport to me, either; Steve had made sure of that. Jarvis was ordered to keep me under constant surveillance, and, to make sure that I wouldn't find a loophole, the artificial intelligence was also ordered to ignore anything I told him to do that involved undoing the block, stopping the surveillance, or anything similar that was along those lines. Damn technology.

Thankfully, they still had not found a solution on how to sever the mental link between us, so I was still able to talk to him and keep in touch. I let out a deep sigh; the events of today were stressful to say the least. If it were up to me, I would've gone out to get some ice cream or something, but I was stuck in the tower for a while. It was horrible. I was Rapunzel, forever stuck and locked away in the tower with no hope of getting out, and the prince that would've attempted to save me was forever banished from the realm. Yeah, perhaps I was overdramatizing it, but that's sure as hell what it felt like. Man, love sucked.

I heard a faint knocking and inwardly grumbled. I did not want to see anyone right now. I buried my face into my pillow and mumbled, "Go away before I murder you."

A faint voice responded, "Robin? It's me, Ayame. It's time to eat. Wanna eat up here or down with the others?"

I sat up, somewhat baffled. I had a choice? I thought I wouldn't get one with how bad things were earlier. "Up here, if I have a choice. I don't wanna talk to the others right now." They all probably already knew about what happened by now. And one thing was certain. I did _not _want to bring all of that drama up again.

Ayame opened the door and nodded, "Okay, I'll bring some pizza up, then."

I slightly cheered up, "Pizza? Is there bacon on it?"

She nodded, "Yeah, there's at least two pizzas with bacon on them."

"Cool! I'll have ten slices!" I absolutely loved bacon.

"Ten?" Ayame asked in disbelief, "How could you eat ten slices?"

"I'm hungry, that's how!" And, as if in agreement, my stomach growled obnoxiously loud.

She giggled a bit, "I'll bring you four and see how hungry you are afterwards, then." She disappeared for a moment and returned with two plates of pizza slices. She sat down on the bed next to me and handed me one of the plates. "Might as well eat up here with you," she said, "You looked really sad, so we can have a pizza party or something."

I smiled slightly, "Oh, all right. Just as long as we don't invite the others to play stupid games like strip poker."

"Yeah, we won't," she answered, "I know how much you hate that game." She was right, I hated that game with a burning passion of flaming hell. I just absolutely hated exposing myself in front of other people. I was still scarred from my childhood and I did not want to explain where they came from. The memories were too painful to bring up.

"We could play a different kind of card game, though," I suggested, taking a slice of pizza and eating it. I had soon devoured two slices in about a minute. I just didn't realize how hungry I was until I started eating.

Ayame looked at me, and then threw a random piece of bacon at my. The sliver of meat bounced off of my cheek and I turned to face her, giving her an odd look. "Cheer up!" she said, "I miss your crazy, psycho, pyro self!"

I shrugged, "Eh, I don't know if I can. I'm kind of in deep shit right now and I won't be able to see him again."

She immediately knew who "him" was, "Oh, Robby, it won't be forever, right? You just gotta let time run its course and things will straighten out, you'll see," she said, trying to reassure and cheer me up.

I sighed, "I hope you're right."

She smiled, "It'll be fine. Now, let's take your mind off of things with some card games, drinks, and chocolate."

I smiled slightly, "Sounds good."

Pretty soon, Ayame and I were seated on my bed with a deck of cards. We had invited Stark and Bruce to play with us, since Stark was too laid back to care about earlier and Bruce was too nice to ask about it. We each had seven cards in hand and a Three of Spades in the center of our little circle. Next to the card were a Two and Five of Diamonds. I searched my card hand and pulled out a card from the fan. I grinned brightly and put it in the center, "King of Spades! Highest trump card!"

Ayame grinned, "I think not!" She placed her card down, "Ace of Spades, bitches! I win!" She dragged the pile of cards towards her.

I sighed; she managed to take my pile, which meant that I was losing my bet. I said I'd get two piles and I had none so far. We were playing a card game called "Oh hell" where the players started with seven cards and would make a bet with how many piles they'd win for each round. If they were right, they'd get at least ten points or higher, the number depending on how many piles they got. If they got over or under their said amount, they would lose points. How the player won a pile would be when they'd have the highest trump card, which matched the suit of the card placed in the middle at the beginning, or the highest number of a suit everyone had if no one had a trump card or if there was no trump at all. The round lasted until all of the cards in the players hand were used, and for each passing round, the number of cards in hand was decreased by one card. I grabbed a card from the deck and placed it on the table and turned it over. It was an Ace of Diamonds. Aces in the middle meant that there was no trump. I glanced at my hand, kept a stoic face and looked to everyone. "Stark, your turn."

Stark nodded and grinned, setting down a Queen of Hearts. Bruce set down a Two of Hearts and I threw out an Ace of Hearts. Ayame sighed and set down a Five of the same suit. "Yes! Got one!" I cheered and pulled in the pile.

Stark chuckled and looked to Bruce, who had no piles yet. "Wow, you suck at this game," he joked.

"I just don't have any good cards," Bruce replied, "Besides; I bet that I'd have no piles by the end of this round, so I'm hoping that I don't get any!"

The game continued on like this for a while. I had managed to make a comeback in the next rounds and ended with me in first place, following Bruce in second, Ayame in third, and Stark last. He was rather bitter that he lost, which in turn made me laugh a bit. Ayame was right; this did take my mind off of things. _Congratulations on your victory, Robin, _Loki chuckled softly.

I smiled, _Thanks!_

"I can't believe I lost!" Stark grumbled.

I giggled, "Well, then you should have made more careful bets!"

He rolled his eyes, "Yeah, yeah, whatever."

* * *

**And just a side note, the game played in this chapter is an actual card game. I didn't know if anyone heard of it, but I learned of it through my sister's fiance. I probably messed up a bit with the little rule explanation, but whatever.**


	23. Chapter 22

**Hey everyone! Here's a new chapter up and everything! This one's probably one of my more longer chapters. And just as a side note, I'll be going on a little ski trip over the weekend so this will be my last chapter update for a few days. **

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC Robin.**

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It had been a few weeks since I had gotten in trouble. The tension between Steve and I wasn't so bad now, but we had never quite fully reconciled after our argument that fateful day. We still didn't quite know what to say to each other in regards to trying to make amends. However, he'd occasionally say things like "It's better this way" or "It's for your own good". I didn't really care whether or not if those words were true to the real situation; I still missed seeing Loki terribly. I sat in the kitchen, eating a waffle with chocolate chips in it. It was another awkwardly silent morning. I was the only one in Stark Tower. I had gotten sick a few days ago and that sickness had escalated into a fever earlier this morning. The other Avengers were out on a mission in Beverly, West Virginia. Steve decided that I should stay home due to my ailment.

The mission my friends were sent on was a mission to inspect a weird, otherworldly object that had crash landed a few miles away from the city they were going to. They had headed out to check up on the prison that had exploded and see how well its repairs were going before heading out on the jet. I sighed in boredom, lightly drumming the table with my fingers, I had wanted to go with them so badly, to finally get out of this stupid building, but no, I had to go and get myself sick. I was too weak to entertain myself with pranking random people on the streets below, or to make cute little fire animals with my flames, and there was absolutely nothing to watch on TV. Stark's house was way too confusing to navigate for someone as directionally challenged as I, so I couldn't for the life of me find any movies he had, which meant I literally had nothing to do.

I sighed and lay on the couch, the exhaustion of my fever finally taking its toll and making me want to sleep. I shivered, grabbing a warm, fuzzy red blanket and wrapping it around me tightly as I curled underneath the blanket and tried to keep myself from feeling cold. I closed my eyes and tried my hardest to sleep, but a faint walking sound kept me up. I opened an eye slightly and then opened my eyes completely when I saw a glass of water being held in front of me. I looked up, and, to my utmost surprise, I saw Loki in front of me. After being unable to see his face for longer than I had wanted, my heart practically soared as a smile spread on my face, "Loki!" but then I paused, "Why are you here? Not that I'm complaining or anything, but what about what Steve said? Or Jarvis?" Thankfully, I don't think my brother thought of having Jarvis raise an alarm if he saw Loki or anything. Steve was still horribly technologically illiterate.

Loki shook his head, "I do not care about either of those things at the moment." He handed me the water glass and continued, "You are unwell and I wanted to see you. . ."

I took the glass and sat up a little bit to take a small, tentative sip. "Thanks," I said with a small, rather weak smile.

He smiled gently, sitting beside me and placing the back of his hand on my forehead to check my temperature. He frowned and said softly, "You're burning up."

I shrugged limply and said in a quiet voice that was hoarse due to a sore throat, "I have a slightly higher body temperature than most people, so that means my fevers are higher too."

He nodded slightly, "Then get some rest. . ."

I gave him a tiny nod and laid back down, yawning and closing my eyes. I curled up into a little ball under the blanket, trying to once again stop my bothersome shivering. Loki hesitated for a moment before leaning against me to help warm me up, wrapping his arms around me in a close hug. I smiled a bit before closing my eyes and finally falling asleep. We had stayed like that for a while, with me occasionally waking up to sip some more water to help regulate my unbalanced temperature. I had soon broken my fever and felt a little better when I had eaten some toast. However, I was still weak and tired out from my sickness. Soon, my cell phone started ringing. I sighed and limply smacked the table in an effort to pick it up, but it was just too far away for me to reach without having to get up. Loki chuckled softly at my failed attempts before picking up the dark purple phone himself and handing it to me. I gave him a small smile in thanks before answering the phone and placing it to my ear. "Hello?" I mumbled sleepily.

It was Ayame I heard, and she sounded close to tears, "R-Robin. . ."

I stiffened at the scared and sad tone she had in her voice, my tired tone growing a bit more serious, but still horribly hoarse, "What happened?"

"There was . . . there was. . ." I heard her voice choke up and she couldn't continue her sentence.

I decided to ask a different question and find out what happened later, "Where are you at?"

"St. Joseph Hospital," she answered softly.

My heart stopped cold. Why would they be in a hospital when they were looking for an alien object? There was only one answer that popped into my mind. Something had gone horribly wrong. I nearly dropped my phone in my silent panic. "All right, I'm coming," I said in a strained voice, trying not to choke up myself.

Loki noticed my distress as I hung up, "What happened?"

"I don't know, but I'm pretty sure someone got severely injured," I said quietly. "How am I supposed to get there on time?" I cautiously stood up and grabbed my nearby jacket.

He looked at me in disbelief, "You're going out there? But you are unwell. I do not think that choice is wise. . ."

I shook my head, "Probably not, but I don't care at this point. Someone got injured and I have to know if they'll be okay or not. I worry too much to just sit here and hope for the best. I'm more a woman of action."

He nodded and stood up as well, "Very well, I can easily believe that from you, Robin," he paused for a moment and said softly, "I can get you there, if you wish."

I looked to him and smiled a bit, despite the severity of the situation, "You would? Thank you. . ." I then relayed the location to him and he nodded, placing a firm hand on my shoulder. We both vanished in a flash of green light before reappearing just outside of the hospital. I took a few cautious steps to test my footing before running inside, which was probably the stupidest thing I've done. I almost tripped several times on the way there due to dizziness, and I had to stop several times to get my bearings and clear my vision when small rims of black outlined the outskirts of my field of vision. But I didn't care at that point, I was too busy panicking and assuming the worst. I soon entered the waiting room and was greeted by Stark, "Robin? How'd you get here so fast?"

"No time to explain," I said, breathless from my dash, "Where's everyone else? And what happened?"

Stark nodded, "It's a long story; I'll just take you to the others." He led me through the corridors in the hospital before stopping at a door numbered eighty three. I walked in and what I saw almost made me faint right then and there. I saw Steve, lying in a hospital bed with an IV attached to his left hand. He was bandaged up everywhere, the white bandages stained crimson from the blood that was still spilling a bit from the wounds. There were several severe burns on him that had been treated as best as they could and there was a tray beside the bed with bloody shrapnel that I could only assume was pulled from his skin where it hit him. He was barely conscious and his breathing was shallow. I had to put both of my hands over my mouth to keep from crying out. "Oh God," I whispered, tears threatening to spill. I hurried over to him and kneeled beside him. "Steve. . ." My voice choked up.

He blinked and looked at me with his eyes, not even moving his head to see me completely. He said in a hoarse, weak, and drowsy voice, "H-hey, Robin. . ."

I clenched my jaw, choking back the cry of agony that wanted to be set free. "Steve . . . what happened?"

He closed his eyes and thought for a moment, swallowing, "I don't . . . remember."

My lower lip quivered, I was afraid that I was losing him, "Steve, don't leave me," I whispered. My heart pounded when he didn't respond. That hit my panic button, "Steve. . . Oh God, Steve, I'm so sorry . . . please . . . don't leave me. I . . . I need you." I bowed my head with my hands clasped together and big, fat tears running down my cheeks. I couldn't bear the thought of losing the only family I had. He had saved me from the streets and my past life. He found me, broken, bruised, and bleeding, near starved and took me in without even questioning where I came from or who I was. He saved my life many years ago, and I felt that I didn't have any more chances to thank him for putting up with me for so long. I needed him. Without my brother, I didn't know what I would do with myself.

My depressing thoughts were interrupted with an angry mumble from Stark, "What are _you _doing here?" I didn't even bother to look up. I cared about nothing except the safety of my brother at this point.

"Is now really the time for that?" a smooth, uniquely accented man asked. I immediately knew who it was. I heard footsteps coming closer to our direction. I felt the man's arms wraps around me in a tight, comforting hug. "Robin," he said quietly in my ear, "it's all right. . ."

I looked up at Loki, ignoring the tense and confused expressions of the other people in the room. I was still crying. "How do you know?"

He gently wiped my tears away with his thumb and murmured, "Your brother is strong. He will make it."

I closed my eyes and let out a shuddering breath, "But what if he doesn't? What will happen then? What if . . . what if. . ." I couldn't finish my question.

He held me close to him, gently stroking my hair, "He will make it," he said softly, "I will make sure of it. . ." He looked to Steve and placed his hand on a wound on his arm, his hand glowing in a warm, emerald light. The Avengers, excluding innocent, little Ayame, were tensing up and were about to intercept Loki, but stopped short when they saw the burns on my brother start to repair themselves. They watched in shocked silence as the tissues and skin knitted together, closing up the wounds and making it look as good as new. When Loki was finished, he stood up and said emotionlessly to the others, "His wounds are closed, but he will still need time to recover."

They were completely and utterly speechless, their eyes as wide as owls in shock and surprise. Stark was the first to speak, "What made you do that?"

Loki paused and glanced at me, then replied almost inaudibly, "I know how much he means to Robin. . ." I heard him say it, but I doubted that the others could, he had sounded so quiet. Before anyone could question him further, he vanished. Everyone, aside from Steve who was almost asleep by then, looked at me with baffled expressions as if I knew the answers to their questions. I ignored them, still kneeling at Steve's bedside. I looked at him, and what I saw was a miracle. His burned skin was nonexistent, and when I hesitantly unwrapped a bloody bandage, there was no sign of a laceration underneath. I let out a sigh of relief when he stirred slightly. I thought I'd lost him for good. I cried silent tears of joy. I didn't know exactly what had happened, or how he got that way, but my brother was safe and that was all that mattered to me at that moment.

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**Phew! Lot goes on in this chapter, no? XD**


	24. Chapter 23

**Okay, so I know that I said I'd be on a ski trip, and I am, but I brought my laptop just in case and the resort has free WiFi, so I can post chapters! :3 So, anyway, enjoy this chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC Robin.**

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We sat in the black jet on our way back to New York, each of us silent and unknowing on what to say about the previous events. Steve had spent the night in the hospital earlier for recovery, so we had to stay in a hotel nearby until he was ready to go home. The nurses and doctors were still baffled at how quickly Steve's wounds were healed, and we decided to just keep quiet about it and say that we didn't know either. Now that we were homeward bound, things were awkwardly quiet and serious. I was the first to break the silence for once, "What happened back there?" I asked, "How did Steve manage to get hurt so badly?"

Ayame looked up at me and answered the question, "The artifact we were looking at was a bomb of some sort or something. When we got close to it, it started beeping. Before we could really do anything, it exploded. Most of us were able to get away in time, but I tripped over a loose stone and couldn't quite recover in time. Steve blocked me from the blast, but he got hit by it somewhat."

I nodded slightly. It made sense; he always did put other people before himself. I heard that before he even became Captain America, he had jumped on a bomb that everyone thought was live while everyone else ran away just to somewhat help subdue the expected blast. That's what made the scientist decide that he was the right person for the Super Soldier Project. I imagined that the man that chose Steve was a kind, possibly somewhat eccentric, person. "I see. . ." I glanced at my brother, who was passed out beside me and sleeping peacefully. I was half tempted to draw a mustache on his face, but I decided against it. He had been through enough already. I couldn't blame him for being tired, he had a rough day yesterday. "I'm glad you're all okay, then."

Ayame nodded, "Partly thanks to Loki. Steve would've been in recovery much longer or worse if he hadn't healed him. . ." I blinked away tears that threatened to spill and simply nodded in agreement, afraid that if I spoke I would only start crying again.

"I'm still confused as to why he did that," Stark said.

I wasn't too surprised at this point. I had heard and somewhat understood why he did it. "I'm glad he did, though," I said softly. I looked to Ayame and tried to lighten up the mood a bit, "Remind me to get him some dessert or something. I think he's earned it!" Ayame giggled and nodded.

Natasha ignored my attempt and continued on with our previous, more serious conversation like the super spy assassin she was, "Well, we answered your question. Now answer ours. Why the hell was he so intimate with you earlier?"

I thought for a moment, "Why?" I blushed very slightly, a barely noticeable tint, "I guess he likes me or something. . ."

_I more than just like you, love, _Loki said softly. I blushed a bit more at his comment. I honestly didn't expect him to say that, I don't know why, but I didn't. Everyone, aside from Ayame, looked at me, confused by my sudden tint and at what I had said. I guess that they hardly believed that Loki would be fond of a mere mortal such as myself. Hell, I wouldn't have believed it years ago, either.

"I see," Natasha said quietly. She looked down at her hands and we dropped the subject for the moment. I know she had to interrogate Loki on the Helicarrier, but I didn't know what words had been exchanged through the two. What had happened that had made her so uneasy? He was rather sadistic back then, I suppose. I heard he mauled out some man's eye in Stuttgart, but I had missed out on the action myself. I guess he threatened her or something, but it must have been rather intense if it had made her like this now when we talked about him.

"So . . . who's up for some ice cream later?" I asked, trying to lighten up the once again somber mood.

Ayame looked up, her blue eyes sparkling and a large smile on her face, "Ice cream? Of course!"

Thor chuckled softly at her enthusiasm and nodded in agreement. The others eventually agreed and I smiled, "Then it's settled! Awesome! Ice cream, here we come!" We landed the jet a few hours later during the jet ride, in which we had to deal with Ayame and her trying to get over her horrible case of motion sickness. I eventually just had to give her my hair tie and tell her to just stay in the bathroom of the large jet until we landed.

Once we reached New York and safely made our way to Stark Tower, I started walking outside, only to have Ayame rush past me and kneel dramatically to the ground, "Oh, thank God! Land! I missed you!"

We all laughed as we eventually joined her outside. I paused and thought for a moment, "Steve's still asleep, isn't he?" Natasha looked to me and nodded and I quickly made my way back into the jet, gently shaking my sleeping brother to get him to wake up. "Stevey . . . Stevey. Wake up, brosef!"

He blinked and looked up at me drowsily, his eyes clouded with confusion and a bit of drool leaking from the side of his mouth, "What . . . ? Where are we?" he voice was slightly slurred from being woken up prematurely.

I smiled and hugged him, glad that he was all well now, "Back home, safe and sound. I'm glad you're okay, Steve, I was so worried."

Steve returned the hug and said, "That's good," he paused and then continued, "What . . . what happened back there in the hospital? I couldn't quite understand anything, I was barely awake."

I nodded, "Yeah, I can believe that." I paused, wondering how to bring it up, and then just decided to tell him up front, "Well, while you were only half awake, Loki stopped by and healed you with magic."

Steve looked into my eyes in disbelief, "You're not just saying that to make me rethink my opinion of him, are you?"

I shook my head, "No . . . it actually happened. I've got six eye witnesses to vouch for that."

He seemed confused, "Why? What made him want to do that after the fight that had happened before?"

"He knew I needed you," I said quietly.

Steve looked at me in surprise, but after a while, he nodded slightly, "All right. . ."

"Anyway, we're going to get ice cream! Want some?"

He paused for a moment, "I would but," he stood up, "the anesthetic's wearing off. . ." He hurried off into Stark Tower after a few uneasy steps and I inwardly winced. When the anesthetic wore off, it meant constant puke-fest for a while. Poor Steve.

I stood up and headed to the others. "Steve's not coming, he needs to upchuck."

Ayame grimaced, "Ew! Why do you always have to be so blunt, Robin?"

I giggled, "What? I love being awkwardly blunt!"

She sighed, "Oh, all right."

"Anyway, shall we embark on a marvelous walk through the commoner's streets to enjoy thy lovely frozen dairy products?" I asked, taking on a mock fancy tone.

Stark raised an eyebrow, "Why did you suddenly sound Shakespearean?"

I shrugged, "It's fun to talk fancy, dammit!"

Stark chuckled slightly, "All right then. . ." We all then proceeded to walk the streets after the others got into normal street clothes. I was already good with the whole "trying to look more like a citizen" thing, so I didn't have to change. We talked and joked as we headed to the ice cream shop.


	25. Chapter 24

**Hey, everyone! Here's the next chapter and everything! I've been getting plenty of time to write when taking a break from the slopes. XD I know, I probably shouldn't write during vacation, but I enjoy writing this story so much that I had to bring my notebook and laptop with me.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC Robin.**

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I sat at the table in Stark tower, looking over at Steve. "So . . . how do you feel?" I inquired, watching him tentatively eat some cookie dough ice cream I had brought back for him. I felt he needed some dessert after what he had been through.

"Better, thanks," he said, smiling slightly, "Thanks for the ice cream."

"No problem. You needed some dessert."

He chuckled softly, "Yeah, guess I did." He yawned a bit, "But I might turn in soon. It's getting late out."

I nodded and looked out the window, seeing the sky pitch black and the streets below alight with the bright glow of fluorescent and neon signs. "Yeah, I understand that. It's been a rough few days for you."

"Yeah, just a bit." He slowly got up and awkwardly shuffled drowsily to his room. I watched him leave, wanting to make sure he could even navigate the tower before walking into the living room and plopping down on the couch, turning on the TV and slouching back into it. I constantly flipped the channels with the touch screen remote and eventually settled for watching old, science fiction movies when I could find nothing else to watch. Before I knew it, it was almost midnight. Everyone else had already fallen asleep by then, but I was too hyper to sleep, besides, these old movies were entertaining to make fun of.

"What horrible graphics," I heard a chuckle beside my ear.

I jumped a bit in my chair and turned around, placing a hand on my heart and letting out a deep sigh, "Oh! Loki, you scared me!"

Loki chuckled and sat down beside me, wrapping around an arm around my shoulders and grinning in mischievous, mock innocence, "Did I?"

I nodded and giggled a bit at his expression, "Uh, yeah! Why do you have to sneak up on me all of the time?"

He smiled at me, "Because, dear Robin, simply walking up to you is utterly boring."

I rolled my eyes playfully, "Yeah, yeah, whatever." He laughed and kissed my cheek. I smiled brightly at him and wrapped my arms around his neck, giving him a kiss. He looked at me in slight surprise, for I had never initiated a kiss before. I blushed a bit and said softly, "I never did get the chance to thank you for healing my brother."

He chuckled slightly and teased, "Only a kiss?"

I rolled my eyes and smiled, "Well, what do you want me to do, then?"

He grinned and responded, "Oh . . . I don't know. . ."

I giggled and randomly poked his side. He chuckled slightly and shifted a bit away from me as a reaction. He looked at me with an amused glint in his eyes, "Now, what was that for?"

I shrugged, "Meh. Just felt like doing it."

He grinned that famous little impishly mischievous grin of his that he always used when he was planning something, "Is that so?"

I leaned back teasingly. I knew that grin all too well, "Uh oh. What are you planning?" Before I could move away, he started tickling my sides. I started laughing uncontrollably and began flailing my arms around to try and stop him, while curling up into a little ball. My attempts were futile, however. "No! Stop!" I said between my laughing fits. Loki chuckled and smiled at me, eventually stopping his tickling and letting me take in a big gulp of air. Curse my extremely ticklish spots! I looked up at him and fake pouted, "You're an evil little gremlin!"

He chuckled, "'Evil little gremlin', am I? That's a new one!" He leaned in close to my face and grinned devilishly, "Although, I did not know you were the ticklish sort. . ."

I widened my eyes and curled up into a fetal position in an attempt to cover all of my ticklish spots. Sadly, I had way too many to cover up. "No! No more!"

He smiled and kissed the top of my head, wrapping his arms around my curled up body, "I was only playing, love," he paused and added with a teasing tone, "Or was I?"

I looked up at him and replied sarcastically, "Gee, that's comforting."

He chuckled and looked at me with a faked hurt expression, "You doubt me?" he teased.

I giggled, "Well . . . I don't know, you have those certain moments. . ."

He smiled, "Well then!"

I smiled and looked up at him, "Thanks for healing Steve, though. I don't know what would've happened if it wasn't for you."

Loki smiled at me, "You're welcome."

"I mean it. You didn't even have to, you could've just left, but you didn't."

"I would do anything for you, Robin," he said softly.

I looked at him in surprise, "Anything?" I asked.

He smiled, "Anything."

"Like anything, anything, or just to an extent anything?"

He chuckled softly, "Anything, anything."

I paused, thinking his answer over for a moment before asking hesitantly and nervously, "E-even switch sides?"

He looked at me in surprise at my question, and went silent, taking on a thoughtful expression. For once, I was patient. I waited for his answer quietly, afraid that if I said anything he'd say no. He was quiet and in thought for the longest time and I was beginning to doubt that he'd accept my request. I was nervous at his silence, and I began to wonder why I even opened my big mouth and asked such a stupid question. Eventually, he spoke, "Is this what you really, truly want, Robin? Be honest with me."

I thought for a moment, "Well. . . It would be nice. I-I'd like to be with you and then that way we wouldn't have to hide from everyone like we have. . ." Not to mention me switching sides was just out of the question, I couldn't bear to fight against my brother and my friends. They were the family I never had. However, I didn't say this out loud.

He nodded and went back to silently thinking and mulling over the options, pulling me close to him in a hug and gently resting his head on top of my own. Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity of waiting uncharacteristically patiently, he finally spoke up again, "Yes. . ."

I looked up in surprise, not quite hearing him. He had taken so long in his answer that I managed to doze off a little despite my anticipation, "I'm sorry," I said quietly, "What was that?"

Loki looked into my eyes and repeated it again, "Yes."

I couldn't help the wide and excited smile that appeared on my face, I was so shocked and happy that I thought my own ears were lying to me and my heart practically skipped a beat. "R-really?"

He chuckled softly and nodded, "Yes, Robin, I will switch sides, but . . . just for you."

I smiled brightly at him, "T-that's great!"

He nodded and looked at me, "But you have to understand, it will be difficult."

I nodded, "I do understand, kind of from experience, really. I'm still learning the ropes to being good, so yeah." I briefly remembered my childhood, and how I was supposed to end up being a villain, an emotionless, killing machine, but it didn't end that way. Of course, I still had my rather villainous moments sometimes, especially when I lost my rather short temper.

He smiled softly at me, "Then we shall switch sides together."

I smiled, so excited that if it were possible I would have exploded from too much happiness. "Yeah! That's sounds great!" I hugged him tightly and he chuckled softly, gently kissing the top of my head and playing with my hair. Now we just had to figure out a way to explain it to the other Avengers, especially Steve. My wave of happiness came to an abrupt halt and a slight hint of despair entered my emotions instead. Shit.


	26. Chapter 25

**Hey everyone! Here's the next chapter! It's kind of a late update for me, but I got it finished today and just couldn't wait to post it on here! Anyway, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC Robin.**

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I yawned and slowly opened my drowsy eyes that did not want to open, blinking in the bright morning light that shone through the square window, lighting up the otherwise dark and dreary room. I looked around in a bit of confusion; I was in a half asleep state, not quite knowing exactly where I was. Then, the obnoxious sound of a pigeon flying into the window and hitting it with a sharp tapping sound jolted me to full awareness with a slight jump. I glared briefly at the window as the gray bird flew away. Damn pigeons. I scanned the room, now fully awake, and took in my surroundings. I was in my bedroom, but I didn't recall how or when I had got there. I remembered falling asleep on the couch and didn't remember waking up to move or anything. Just then, I heard and felt something slightly shift beside me in my bed. I slowly turned my head towards the sound and, to my utter surprise, there was Loki, his was back turned to me and he was sound asleep.

I couldn't quite trust my eyes and cautiously peered over at him, leaning over and looking at his face. He seemed rather peaceful at the moment, deep in his own dreams. I hesitated, I didn't quite want to disturb that expression, but I finally decided to gently poke his cheek before quickly drawing my hand back. Felt real. Okay, so he really was there. I was unsure if I was still dreaming or not, but now I knew I wasn't. I saw him shift again, his once relaxed expression squinting slightly from the disturbance and he softly mumbled in his sleep. I couldn't help but giggle quietly and, just for the hell of it, I poked his cheek again. What I saw next alarmed me a bit. He was now smirking softly, this was not good. I attempted to back away, but before I could do anything, in one swift movement, he rolled himself over so that he was lying on top of me and looking down at me. I let out a high-pitched, rather girly squeak of surprise and silently cursed myself for making such an embarrassing sound.

Loki chuckled softly, his eyes now open and alert, "Surprised you, didn't I?" he grinned.

I nodded, blushing slightly, "Yeah, only a bit. . ."

He laughed and teased, "'Only a bit,' she says."

"You doubt me?" I said with mock hurt.

He smiled, "Well, I know it wasn't a small surprise. You squeaked, Robin, and you do not do that a lot."

I turned bright red, "Yeah and it was embarrassing."

"No need to be embarrassed about it. It was kind of adorable."

"You're only saying that because it embarrasses me."

He grinned, "Maybe partially."

I rolled my eyes playfully, "And by maybe, you mean yes, don't you?"

He looked at me with a mischievous glint in his eyes, "Maybe." Before I could react, he leaned down and kissed me. I blushed and giggled a bit, looking up at him and smiling at him. "You slept well, then, I presume?" he asked with a chuckle.

I nodded, "Yeah, but I don't remember getting here."

He smiled softly, "You fell asleep on the couch and I carried you to your room." That made sense, actually. Why didn't I think about that fact, and how that very well could've happened? Stupid, stupid, stupid. Loki's voice brought me back to reality, "Do you know that you talk in your sleep?" he asked with a chuckle, sitting back so that I could get up.

I sat up, resting my back on the backboard and staring at him blankly, "I do?" I had never remembered talking in my sleep, but I remembered Steve saying that I did a while ago. But that was so long ago that I had forgotten about it until Loki had brought it up.

Loki chuckled and nodded, "Yes, you do. They're small little blurbs about your current dream. Quite random."

I turned bright red from embarrassment. If I talked in my sleep, then that meant I talked during even my most embarrassing dreams. How much did he hear? "Oh . . . did it keep you up?"

He shook his head and smiled, "No. It did a little, at first, but it was so soft that I soon grew accustomed to it. It was quite entertaining to listen to you."

I nodded a bit, "Okay, that's good, then." I stopped talking when I heard a bit of commotion downstairs, the faint clattering of pots and pans reaching my room. "Sounds like they're making breakfast," I said softly, "Won't be long before everyone wakes up." I looked to him, "You should probably go. . ."

He sighed, "I thought I would not have to leave, now."

"I know, but a repeat of that one argument that took place weeks ago won't help our cause." Steve's furious glare had still burned in the back of my mind.

"True."

"Besides, it's only until I can find a way to explain it to them. If I need any help, I'll let you know, okay?"

"All right," he said softly, and then added, "I wish I could stay with you a while longer. . ."

I gave him a small smile, "If everything works out, then we can spend time together all of the time."

Loki sighed, "If is a key word there."

I nodded, "Yeah, but don't worry, it'll work out!" I was trying to reassure him as well as myself.

"What makes you so sure?"

Honestly, I didn't know. There was no way of telling whether or not Steve and the others would accept our request, but I couldn't just give up without trying. After a moment of thinking, I had something to tell him, "Well," I began, "You saved my life and quite possibly Steve's. That's not something they can easily forget, right?"

He looked at me and nodded, the statement seeming to reassure him slightly, "True."

I heard footsteps down the end of the hall, faintly getting louder as it walked towards my room. I sighed and repeated sadly, "You should probably go. . ."

He sighed, "Very well. . ." He held me close to him, placing a gentle hand on the back of my head and kissing me deeply, "But I will be back," he murmured softly after breaking the kiss, and then he vanished.

A small blush crept across my face and I sat there for a few moments in silence before standing up, hearing a faint knocking on my door. "Robin?" I heard Steve ask, his voice muffled by the door, "We're having eggs and bacon. Want any?"

"YES!" I shouted excitedly. I never could resist bacon.

Steve chuckled, "Well, come downstairs and get some."

I ran out of there as fast as possible, nearly slipping downstairs in my excitement. Thankfully, I managed to stop my fall and happily plopped down in a chair beside Ayame, taking a plate of bacon and eggs and hungrily wolfing down the food. Stark chuckled, "Slow down, Sparky, there's no rush today!"

I swallowed my mouthful of food and giggled, "Sorry, I just love bacon!"

He laughed, "I'll say!"

I looked to Steve, "So, no odd things to investigate or any imminent threat of the world being dominated?"

Steve shook his head and smiled, "Nothing at all! We finally get a day off."

A wide grin spread on my face, "Really? Great!" The life of a hero never did rest, but now, finally, the world was at peace, if only for a little while.

A soft voice in my head said somewhat impatiently, _When are you going to tell them?_

_Soon, _I replied, being distracted from the merry conversation before me and blocking it out, _I just have to find the right words to say to them. They all seem to be in a good mood, so now would be the right time to bring it up._

_Do hurry, _Loki replied, _We might not get another chance like this._

". . . don't you think, Robin?" Ayame's question brought me back to the conversation before I could reply to him.

I looked over at her in confusion, "I'm sorry, what?"

"Don't you think we should have bacon every day?" she repeated.

I nodded, "Hell yeah! Sorry, didn't hear ya!"

She giggled and nodded, "Okay. Lemme guess, a certain voice in your head distract you?"

I nodded, "Yeah."

Steve sighed, "Loki's still talking to you?"

I nodded and looked at him, "Yeah," I noticed his worried expression and added, "that can't be helped, Steve, and I've grown used to it. No need to worry." I chose my next words carefully, "Speaking of which," I said hesitantly, "There's something I need to tell you," I raised my voice slightly so everyone else could hear, "All of you."

The rest of the Avengers stopped talking and looked at me expectantly, curious as to what I needed to say. I still had to think about how to bring it up carefully. If I screwed this chance up, we'd never get a chance to redo it. Stark eventually spoke up in the silence, "Well, what do you need to say? Spit it out. I've got bacon that's calling my name."

I took a deep breath and decided to bite the bullet. There was just no way I could beat around the bush with this. "Well, uh," I began hesitantly, "Loki wants to switch sides."

Everyone immediately stopped what they were doing and stared at me wide-eyed in complete shock, obviously thinking that their ears had deceived them. Some of them were so shocked that they dropped their forks, the sound of metal clanging against the glass plates ringing in a loud echo around the otherwise suddenly silent room. Their reactions made me doubt myself again. This was certainly going to be an interesting morning.

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**Oh ho ho! What shall happen next? No one knows until the next chapter comes out. MWAHAHAHA! My evil gremlin mode's kicking in again. XD**


	27. Chapter 26

**Well, here's the next chapter, everyone! This is quite possibly my longest one yet, but I had so much I had to put in this chapter. Anyway, enjoy! **

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC Robin.**

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"I'm sorry, what did you say?" Steve asked me, finally breaking the awkward silence.

"Loki wants to switch sides," I repeated, looking at the expressions of the others. They were so shocked and speechless that I could have believed that they had all seen a ghost.

"S-surely you jest," Thor said in disbelief, "I mean, does it not seem rather sudden? Perhaps you simply misheard him."

Just then, to everyone's surprise, Loki appeared out of nowhere right beside me, "No, she heard me correctly."

Everyone stared at him, still taken aback by his appearance and what he had said until they snapped out of their temporary stupor. Bruce looked at him for a moment before staring down at his own plate, Clint clenched his fists, and Steve stared at Loki with a puzzled expression while Natasha only glared at him. Stark only sat back in his chair and looked at Loki with a raised eyebrow of irritation. Thor sat there in a conflicted mood, he was obviously happy about seeing his brother, but he didn't know exactly how to react, and Ayame just sat there like the happy derp she was. I looked up at Loki and whispered softly, "What are you doing?" I was just as surprised as everyone else by his random visit.

"I felt that you might want help explaining all of this," he whispered back before addressing the others in a louder and more confident voice, "Like Robin has said, I wish to join you."

Natasha grunted in contempt and looked away in annoyance, obviously not believing him, but stayed silent. It seemed like the last thing she wanted to do in this world was to associate with him. Steve narrowed his eyes and was the first to speak, "But, why? Why the sudden decision?"

Loki didn't say anything, but looked at me as a response.

Steve looked at him and followed his line of sight, staring at me for a few moments before looking back at Loki, "Because of my sister?" he asked in surprise.

Loki nodded, "Yes."

Ayame looked like she was trying to hold back something, but failed miserably and let out a big, girly sounding "aww" before saying in a sing-song voice, "I think we should let him! He's doing it out of love. It's so adorable and romantic!" She always was a hopeless romantic.

Loki said nothing, but I could hear his thought in my mind as clear as day, _Foolish mortal, not everything is so innocent._

_Meh, it's just her mindset, _I replied, _She's rather naïve, but, oh well._

_But she is right, _he replied softly, _I am doing this out of love. . ._

I blushed slightly and looked to the others, they were silent. Their silence in a place where they would otherwise talk constantly made me nervous. Would they let Loki join? I didn't know at this point. Steve sighed, his blue eyes full of uncertainty, "I don't know."

"I say we shouldn't," Natasha finally spoke up, looking over at Steve, "It's a bad idea, you can't trust him no matter what he says." This was bad. It was a good point; they had reason to doubt him. He was a known liar.

"Tash is right, Cap," Clint said in agreement, "Who's to say he won't turn on us?" I sighed, this was definitely not going as planned. Bacon should've buttered them up and made them more cooperative, however, it wasn't working.

"But," Ayame said, "he can't be that bad, can he? He's had plenty of chances to hurt Robin and he hasn't taken them."

"That may only mean he's using Sparky here for his schemes," Stark said, "And then when he no longer has a use for her. . ."

Loki clenched his fists so hard that his knuckles had turned a ghostly white, "How dare you suggest that I would do such a thing to her," he said, his voice deathly quiet and icy sounding. A voice that sounded so cold even the temperature of the room dropped dramatically, "I would never stoop so low," he hissed.

Everyone looked at him with wide eyes, even me. I wasn't expecting him to react like that, and the tone of his voice had scared me slightly. The others seemed to be just as scared of that tone as I was, and they were shivering slightly, except for Ayame, the only one to not shiver in the terrible coldness of the room. Ice, after all, was her element. "Only weighing all of the reasons and options, Reindeer Games," Stark said through chattering teeth.

I shivered more violently than the rest. I could never handle the cold very well, even when I was living in Russia. My fire burning within me clashed horribly with the ice and left me with more severe reactions to cold weather. It was so bad, that if the temperatures were almost to zero outside, I would refuse to go out, for I would get hypothermia. I had been able to somewhat handle the cold better in Russia, but after being away from my old home for so long, I was weak and powerless against the biting fingers of the cold and ice. I looked up at Loki and gently touched his arm with a shaking hand, my other arm wrapped tightly around my body, "L-Loki," I said quietly, trying to suppress the quiver in my voice due to the cold.

He stopped glaring at the others and looked to me, widening his eyes as he noticed my shivering. The room temperature suddenly returned to normal and he drew me into a tight hug, his arms wrapped tightly around my tiny body as he tried to help warm me up. "Robin," he said softly, his voice sounding sorrowful, "I apologize, I didn't mean-"

I cut him off, "I-it's okay," I said softly, my shivering gradually slowing to a stop.

Natasha grumbled to herself, "And it's exactly that kind of explosive behavior that will end horribly. He nearly killed Robin just now!"

I looked up at Loki, I had felt his muscles tense around me and he now had his eyes closed in a somber expression. "She's right, isn't she?" Loki asked softly, his teeth clenched.

I shook my head, "No, no, Loki, I could have just grabbed a blanket or something . . . it's okay." He sighed and remained silent. I looked over to Natasha, "And, you can't use explosive behavior as a point, I was just as bad, if not worse, when I first got here."

She raised an eyebrow, "Oh really?"

"Yeah! Do you know how many times I've almost killed everyone here? Too many to count, I'd say. Plus, whenever the temperature of the room dramatically rose, that was my fault for getting too pissed over something stupid, so there!"

"Even so, Robin, he's a villain, it's not like he'll be able to completely give up his ways so easily. He'll only cause problems," she paused and then added, "And what happened to you wanting to kill him? I remember that last time any of us had seen him, you wanted him dead and hated him."

"So? I didn't say it'd be easy!" I answered, "I know that personally, okay? I was supposed to be a villain too, all right? I was created by evil and they wanted me as a weapon, a tool for their own personal gain. I still have that destructive, villainous behavior, but I can suppress it much better now. Why do you think I have such a short temper? I can't quite control myself completely yet."

Natasha was silenced at this reply.

I looked at her and drew in a deep breath; I didn't want to say that out loud. None of them knew where I truly came from and they didn't even know that I was supposed to be evil. They all thought I had always lived on the streets, abandoned by my real parents. But the truth? The truth was that I had run away from a large, villainous organization that had created me and trained me a bit in my youth. I was tired of doing their dirty work. I was tired of killing the innocent for their own personal gain. I was tired of their punishment when I didn't follow their orders. So I left, and was later found by whom I now call my brother. I shut my eyes tightly, bringing up that subject, if only slightly, caused flashbacks of my past, and the screams of those I had murdered. Loki noticed my distress and asked with concern, "Robin? Are you all right?"

I quickly wiped away a small tear that had leaked from my eye and looked up at him, trying to keep my voice level, "Yeah, I'm fine." I looked to Natasha, "And, to answer your other question as to why I no longer hate Loki, like Bruce had said years ago, he really does grow on you." Loki chuckled softly at this statement and held me close.

Natasha sighed and looked over to Steve. I couldn't read her expression. Damn spies and their excellent concealment of emotion. Steve looked at her for a moment before looking to the ones who hadn't spoken up yet, "Bruce, what's your opinion on the matter?"

Bruce shrugged, unsure of himself, "I'm not sure. At first, I would've said no, but what I've seen and heard today has made me second guess myself." He looked to Stark questioningly, "Stark?" Stark only shrugged.

Steve sighed, "I'm unsure too," he replied, "Thor?"

Thor looked to him and glanced at Loki and me for a few moments, "I do not know," he finally said.

I looked up at them, my pleading gaze sweeping around the room, "All I ask is for you to give him one chance."

"And if he fucks up?" Natasha asked with a raised eyebrow.

"If he fucks up . . . uh, well, we tried and would know not to attempt it again, and, uh, you can gloat and say 'I told you so' all you want without fear of being scorched and whatnot."

Natasha obviously didn't see this as enough to suffice for such a decision, "And I can get rid of him?"

"In what way?" I asked suspiciously.

"In any way I please," she stated simply.

I took in a sharp breath. That statement could mean she'd give him a slow, torturous death, a fast one, or just make him regret even being alive. None of those options sounded good. I didn't want to just agree to something like this without Loki's say in it, so I looked to him for confirmation. He stared at me for a moment before giving me a small nod. I looked back to Natasha and said hesitantly, "All right. Deal."

She nodded and looked to Loki, saying rather harshly, "One chance. That's it."

"And if you screw this up," Clint said, agreeing with Natasha, "I'll put an arrow through your eye." They both walked away.

Stark nodded after they left, "Seems legit." He looked to Loki, "You got their message, Reindeer Games?"

Loki nodded.

"Then I agree with the terms," Stark finished. Bruce and Thor nodded in agreement, but Thor seemed more hesitant to agree with the terms. Perhaps he also felt that they were a bit harsh.

"Then it's been decided?" Steve asked.

They all nodded.

"All right," Steve said hesitantly, and looked to Loki, "Only one chance. You screw this up and you won't get any others."

"I understand," Loki replied.

"And one more thing," Steve added, "You'll be under constant surveillance and you won't be able to leave Stark Tower without supervision, got it?"

Loki nodded.

I raised a hand, "Do I count as supervision?"

Steve shook his head, "No."

My posture slouched in disappointment. If I didn't count as supervision, then I wouldn't get any time completely alone with Loki. "Aww. There goes my dinner plans," I said sadly. Then, suddenly, a question formed in my head and I asked Steve, "Where will he sleep?"

"Well, we have no extra rooms, so he'll sleep on the couch for now."

"Very well," Loki said, I couldn't really quite pick out the emotion in his voice this time. I looked to him and smiled. Perhaps the road had seemed bumpy to begin with, but things seemed to be finally smoothing out now. He smiled back at me and before I knew it, he scooped me up in his arms and gave me a big kiss on the lips. Of course, Steve had witnessed this and cleared his throat rather loudly. Loki sighed and hesitantly set me down again. I blushed and looked at Steve sheepishly. Loki looked at Steve, "I would not harm Robin," he said, and then added almost inaudibly, "Not intentionally."

Steve raised an eyebrow, "You better not, or I'll give Clint full permission to use you as target practice."

"And the Other Guy might help Clint," Bruce added quietly.

Loki winced slightly, probably remembering when the Hulk had thrown him around like a rag doll. "I understand, and you'd have every right to."

I looked at him, my eyes expressing worry. How long would it take before the Avengers would accept him? Would they ever accept him? Would he eventually get tired of being shunned and leave again, or worse? These questions only distressed me further.


	28. Chapter 27

**Hey guys, here's the next chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC Robin.**

* * *

Aside from the rather tense morning, the rest of the day turned out pretty smooth. Loki and I went to a small café for lunch, pretty much ignoring the odd stares we got from the citizens since he had no need for a disguise this time. The citizens seemed to remember him, but were not quite sure, after all, it had been a while since the Chitauri Attack, and not many people were there to witness the Prison Escapade, as I called it.

Natasha was on baby sitter duty, as I liked to call it, and had followed us around the city like a silent shadow to make sure Loki didn't try anything funny and whatnot. It was rather annoying to me at first, it made me feel like I couldn't take care of myself or handle hairy situations, but she kept her distance and didn't bother us, so I eventually got used to it. I smiled brightly at Loki as I walked beside him, I felt happy and for once I was at peace with myself. He chuckled softly and wrapped an arm around my shoulders as we walked. We had spent the entire day together just simply walking around and wreaking small havoc on the city by shouting random things at people in another language. It was rather hilarious, because they reacted as if we had threatened them, but we only said stupid things like "potatoes are yummy".

When we finally headed back to Stark Tower, it was around dinner time. I hung back a bit, eyeing the food on their plates. It was casserole, but it looked like someone had taken random animal intestines, added a butt load of maggots, and put sauce all over it. I liked meat, but I couldn't handle the meat in this kind of food. It tasted weird. Maybe I was just being picky, but I didn't feel like changing that fact at the time. Loki had noticed that I had stopped walking and looked back at me, "Why did you stop?"

I crossed my arms, a thoughtful expression on my face, "I'm weighing out the options."

"For what?"

"The food. It's casserole. I hate casserole," my face scrunched up in disgust, "It would be lovely if it just vanished."

He chuckled and walked towards me until he was standing right in front of me. I had to tilt my head back slightly just to look him in the eye. "And how would you get that to happen?"

"Hmm . . . steal the pot of food and throw it out a window? No, I can't do that . . . Steve would lecture me about how it was a waste of food and whatnot," I paused, "Unless. . ."

Loki raised an eyebrow, "Unless what?"

I grinned, "I put bugs and worms in the pot of food, 'discover' it, and tell everyone what I found, and then they'd get sick and would want to eat something else, and then I wouldn't be forced to eat it."

He chuckled and grinned at me, "It would make quite a scene, wouldn't it?"

I giggled and nodded, "Indeed!"

"But how would you get the worms quickly enough?"

"Easy. Steve has some live bait in the fridge for a fishing trip he had planned for us, but it got cancelled when I got 'sick'."

"I take it you do not like fishing?"

"Hate it. During the summer, if we go to any lakes or anything, those damn mosquitos eat me alive no matter how much bug spray I put on."

He chuckled, "I see."

"Anyway, Operation Food Removal is a go."

"Do you name all of your pranks?"

"Nah, only some. All of the pranks I use on Ayame I call Operation Give Ayame a Heart Attack."

Loki chuckled, "Interesting."

I giggled, "Anyway, to the fridge!" I raised my hand dramatically, an index finger pointed to the sky before heading towards the kitchen, keeping out of the line of sight of the other Avengers. Loki softly laughed and followed after me, no doubt finding my dramatic attitude amusing. I carefully and quietly opened the fridge and took out the white, Styrofoam box of worms. I snuck my way to the black, ceramic pot of food, opening the lid, checking to make sure that no one was looking before pouring the worms into the food. Then, I snuck back out to the living room before casually re-entering the kitchen as if nothing had happened.

"Hey, Robin," Steve said, "Glad you finally showed up."

I looked to the food on his plate and sighed, trying to keep a convincing act, "Casserole?"

"Yep."

"Do I have to eat it?"

"Yep."

I sighed and opened the lid, looking back at Steve, "You expect me to eat _that_?"

"Uh, yeah."

"I'm not. I'm pretty sure it's moving."

"What?"

"Take a look." Steve nodded and stood up, walking over to me and peering at the pot, his face turning a sickly green. Eventually, everyone else who was originally eating the casserole noticed the worms in the pot and looked like they were about to puke. Loki leaned against the frame of the door, his eyes twinkling with amusement as he kept a straight face and held back laughter. Stark had immediately put his fork down, Thor pushed his plate away, Ayame put a hand to her mouth, and Clint and Natasha just sat there with slightly disgusted expressions.

"Pizza, then?" Bruce asked.

"Pizza," they all agreed in unison, and then they stood up and walked out of the kitchen to order some.

When they had all left, Loki and I shared just one glance before cracking up laughing. "Did you see the looks on their faces?" I asked between laughs, wiping away a few tears that had leaked from laughing so hard.

He nodded, smiling at me, "Indeed. T'was priceless."

I giggled, "I should've brought a camera. Their embarrassing reactions would've made excellent blackmail."

He chuckled and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me close, "Oh, how I love you."

I giggled and looked up at him, "We gotta do something like that again sometime."

"Indeed, but not too soon, or they'd get suspicious."

I giggled and nodded before standing on the tips of my toes, stretching out as far as I could and giving him a kiss on the cheek. It was harder than most would think. He was so tall, and I was so short. I smiled at him before going into the living room to see what pizza the others were ordering. Of course, they had a pizza with bacon on it for me.

Dinner was quiet after we had all gotten the pizza, which was unusual for most of the people at the table. Perhaps they were just not used to having Loki around. I noticed that they really didn't seem to want to associate with him that much and this fact saddened me. I told myself that maybe one day they'd all get used to him and would accept him, but only time knew at this point if they would.

* * *

**All right, so this one was kind of a sucky, filler chapter to me, and I'm sorry about that. But there are a few more twists to throw in in the future before the end of the story. **


	29. Chapter 28

**And here's the next chapter! It's at this point that we're almost done with this story, but I'll be writing some more adventures with my psycho Robin in a few more stories. Just a matter of figuring out which one I want to do first. XD**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC Robin.**

* * *

The days had turned into weeks, and the weeks had turned into months. Pretty soon, the cool, fresh air of spring became the hot, scorching heat of summer. Everyone seemed to want to stay inside to escape the heat, except for me. I spent as much time in the sun as possible. The heat didn't bother me nearly as much as the others, my fire power ensured that. While my friends stayed in the shade, I frolicked in the direct heat, barely even breaking a sweat. Thankfully, by now, after having Loki stay with us for a while, some of the Avengers started to accept him. Some, but not all. Ayame and I had talked to Loki from the get-go, and Thor at least tried to make conversation soon after. Sadly, I believe there was still a rift between the two. Eventually, even Stark and Bruce got used to him, and even joked with him.

I lounged in a chair, wearing a simple purple T-shirt and shorts with my eyes closed. My normally pale skin had now at least tanned slightly. I was sitting in quiet meditation before hearing Ayame complain, "Ugh. It's so hot out!"

I opened an eye in annoyance, "Then why don't you go inside?"

"Wouldn't make a difference, the air conditioner is broken for now."

"Then why don't you use your ice?"

"It keeps melting in this heat!"

Stark sat up, "Then how about we go swimming?"

I sighed, "It's been so long since I swam that I doubt I even have a swimsuit that fits me."

"Then we can go shopping to get you one!" Ayame said happily.

I sighed. I was never the kind of girl to go shopping a lot. "Fine, but can you promise me that we won't spend hours buying useless shit we don't need?"

"I make no such promises."

"Then if we start wandering off the main purpose of why we went to the mall, I'll personally drag you out myself. Deal?" I held out a hand for Ayame to shake.

She looked at my outstretched hand for a few moments before shaking it, "Deal."

"Good, then let's hurry in and out. I hate shopping," I paused and added hopefully, "Can I drive?"

Stark widened his eyes, "No!"

"Aww, why not?"

"You suck at driving!"

"Surely I can't be that bad, can I?"

"Well, I must admit," Loki said, "Your driving skills are rather questionable."

"Way to back me up, honey," I said sarcastically. My gaze swept around, looking at everyone, "Am I really that bad?"

"Uh, yeah," Stark said, "You always speed, you majorly road-rage, and you try to swerve off the road in an attempt to hit the people you hate, which would be almost everyone in New York."

"Oh. . ." I sighed, "Fine, I won't drive."

Stark nodded and held up his car keys, "I'll drive." And at that, we all piled into his red convertible. I sat in the back, looking out the side of the car. Loki chuckled and sat next to me, Ayame taking the passenger seat. We soon drove off to the large, colorful shopping center with no problems. Once there, Ayame literally dragged me straight from the car to the swimwear section in the mall with Loki and Stark following behind, laughing at the scene.

Ayame finally stopped in front of a rack of women's swim suits. There were so many of them. "Pick what you want," she said cheerfully.

I looked at her, "Uh. . ." I was overwhelmed by the amount of the choices and just simply shrugged. I didn't know what I wanted.

She giggled, "I'll help, no worries!" She rifled through the collection of swimwear and eventually picked one out, "How about this one?" She pulled out a black bikini with a white skull and crossbones on the top with purple stripes.

I stared at it. It fit my style exactly, but I absolutely refused to wear bikinis. It would expose my biggest scar if I ever wore one. "No," I said.

"Aww, what's the matter?" Stark asked teasingly, "Don't wanna provide eye candy for your fuck buddy?"

I turned bright red and Loki and I both stared at him with wide eyes. "T-Tony!" I exclaimed.

Loki was just as shocked by that statement as I was, "We never-"

Stark cut him off, "You mean to tell me that you never snuck into her room to sleep with her despite the fact that Steve told you not to?"

"It was not in that way, Tony," he replied. I just silently thanked the fact that Steve was not there to hear any of the current conversation.

"That's not the reason, anyway," I said quietly.

"Then what is the reason?" Stark asked.

"I hate exposing my back, end of story."

"Yeah, you always say that, but why do you hate it so much?"

I couldn't tell any of them the real reason, I was too afraid of seeing the scar again myself, but having everyone else see it horrified me. "I . . . I just do," I said, not knowing what else to say.

Stark raised an eyebrow, "Uh-huh."

I sighed in defeat, "Fine, if I try it on will you stop bugging me?"

"Yep."

I rolled my eyes and took the swim suit, stalking into the dressing room. Once I had it on, I looked at myself in the mirror. In the front, it was a cute swim suit on a rather average, albeit Goth looking girl with a tiny body structure and below average height. I sighed and held up one of my arms. I needed to work out more, I was getting weak again. The only thing special about me in an outward appearance, aside from the jagged beginning of a scar on my left collarbone, were my eyes. They were an odd shade of magenta. I always lied and told everyone that I was wearing color contacts, but they were my natural eye color. Then again, was there anything "natural" about me? I was not even created like normal humans. I was only a science experiment, and I was put under the impression at my old home that I was only a creature to be used.

I turned around and examined my scar. In a long "z" shape, an ugly, jagged, and horrific scar stretched across my shoulders, going diagonally down to my left hip, and finally stretching over to my right hip, ending with a slight curl around my hipbone. The scar itself left the skin on my back permanently damaged. It was a constant reminder of who I was. Not a superhero named Robin, but a villainous beast with no name.

I sighed and draped my black, shoulder length hair over my collarbone to hide the beginning of it and walked out to the others, keeping my back to the wall. "Happy?" I grumbled, crossing my arms in irritation.

Ayame smiled reassuringly, "It looks good on you, Robin." The front, maybe, but the back was horrendous. Oh, I wasn't even mentioning the swim suit, _that _part was fine.

I sighed, "Is there a one piece version of this?"

She shook her head, "No, and there's no one pieces that suit you or would seem to fit, or they're just plain ugly." Well, that was just peachy, now wasn't it?

"Fine, I'll get this one," I grumbled before backing away into the dressing room, hiding my back the entire time before changing into my normal clothes and purchasing it. Once we made it to the pool, I sat in a lounging chair with a cover over my swim suit. I was perfectly fine with just sitting there if it meant that no one else would see my scar.

Ayame had asked Steve why I was so paranoid about showing my back once he and the others decided to join our little swimming party, but he didn't tell her. He was the only one who knew the real reason and that was only because when he found me, I had looked like I had gotten into a horrible accident with a paper shredder, or a shitload of knives, or a mixture of the two.

I had just about dozed off in the warm sunlight when I felt its warmth suddenly vanish. "Why are you not swimming?" I heard Loki ask. I opened my eyes to see him, dripping with water from the pool and leaning over me with a curious expression on his face. And he was shirtless. I turned bright red. Oh my God, he was shirtless. I mentally slapped myself for starting to go into fangirl mode, but I couldn't help it. I had never seen him like that before.

"Uh . . . personal reasons," I said quietly. I was trying so hard to keep my focus on his face, but it was extremely difficult.

"Because she's a boring old turd!" I heard Stark shout from the pool.

That was enough for me to tear my eyes away from Loki and glare at Stark, "Am not!" I shouted back.

Loki chuckled softly and sat beside me, "Are you sure you do not wish to tell me?" he looked at me with concern.

I nodded and unconsciously moved my hair behind my ears, "I'm sure."

He noticed the part of the scar that curled around my collarbone and I silently cursed myself for my little, girly habit of moving my hair. "What is that?"

I paled slightly, "Oh . . . it's, uh. . ."

He looked at me curiously before leaning over and inspecting it further. I sighed in defeat; if he had seen it he might as well see the whole thing. I turned around and closed my eyes, anticipating a reaction. I didn't hear him say anything, but I felt him gently and softly touch the scar. I flinched away out of reflex, the last person who had touched it was the man who had given it to me in the first place. Loki finally spoke, his voice quiet, but it was a voice not of worry or sorrow, but of anger, "Who did this to you?"

I kept my eyes closed, "I-I can't tell you."

"Why not?" his voice became gentler at my reaction.

"I don't want to drag you or anyone else into such a mess. They . . . they're still looking for me, and if they find out where I am, they'll drag me away from you and everyone else I care about."

"I understand," he said softly, "but if I ever find out who did this to you, I will personally kill them myself."

"I'll help with that," I said quietly, "Once I'm no longer afraid of them. . ." Just then, I heard a buzzing sound by my ear. I turned my head and saw a big, fat hornet buzzing around. I never liked those things and, like most people, they freaked me out. I reacted anyway a normal human would. I made a rather big deal of it and jumped into the deep end of the pool, creating a surprisingly big splash for a person my size in an attempt to escape the hornet. When I had resurfaced, the others in the pool had laughed at my reaction, definitely not expecting someone as angry as I to be scared of a little bug. I rolled my eyes and looked over to where Loki was still sitting, but instead of seeing him laughing, I saw him looking up at the sky in worry. Out of curiosity, I turned my attention to the sky and widened my eyes. The sky was splitting open as if it were only flimsy fabric.


	30. Chapter 29

**All right! Here's the next chapter, everyone! We're probably only, like, around two or three more chapters to go before this story comes to an end, but I already have an idea for the next fanfiction. Hopefully I can get that one up soon after finishing this one.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC Robin.**

* * *

In a loud, thunderous roar, the sky cracked open violently, only a black abyss could be seen beyond the now imperfect sky blue. The sound was so loud that I had to cover my ears and shut my eyes tight, cringing as it still could be heard rather loudly through my blocked hearing. When I looked up again, I saw odd, strange creatures flying through the hole in a hurried fashion with a much less than friendly attitude. I widened my eyes as the invaders started shooting at everything they could see. I suddenly realized that I was still standing in the pool. Shit, I was absolutely useless in the water. I jumped out as quickly as I could, the other Avengers following suit.

I ran towards the chairs and grabbed the nearest towel, trying to dry myself off as quickly as possible. If I was wet, I would be unable to create my own fire. I looked to everyone else after my quick rub down to make sure they were okay. "Anyone know what the hell is going on?" I asked in a bit of a panic. The ugly creatures were already headed this way.

"You are not the only one being sought after," Loki said quietly.

I looked at him in concern, "What do you mean?" One of the damn things flew right by us, and I ducked momentarily before getting a good look at it. I widened my eyes, "What the hell are the Chitauri doing here?!"

Loki sighed, "I was warned that if I failed to win the Earth and get them the Tesseract, I would be found by them and either tortured or killed. It seems that they've come to fulfill that and more."

"Well, shit," I sighed. "How did they manage to do that, then?" I pointed at the large, gaping hole in the sky.

Loki shrugged, "They possibly found another means of transport. I am unsure."

"Yeah, you and I both, buddy." I gasped as I saw a bright blue laser flash by, "Look out!" I shouted and dived for cover just as a car nearby exploded. I peeked up from where I had hid and looked to Loki, "You all right?"

He nodded, "Yes. And you?"

"Meh, no scratches. But there's no way in hell I'm fighting in a bikini."

He chuckled softly, "I can understand that."

"And Stark Tower's so close," I said, "but what if we're too late by the time we get there?"

"I could always teleport you there."

"Sounds like a plan," I said, and then paused, "but we need to bring Stark with us."

He looked at me curiously, "Why?"

"He's gonna need his suit, and I'm not carrying the damn thing to him."

He chuckled, "All right," he looked over to where Stark was, he was trying to avoid the fire as we were, "Tony!" Loki shouted.

Stark looked over to us, "What?"

Loki gestured for him to get over to where we were crouching behind an overturned table and Stark nodded, carefully, yet quickly reaching us in a way so that he wouldn't get hit by the lasers. "We're going on an equipment run," Loki explained, "You're coming with us."

We paused when we heard a loud, guttural roar. I peeked hesitantly over the white table and saw a huge, muscly, green monster launch itself at a group of the swarming Chitauri. I let out a sigh of relief, "Looks like Bruce already hulked out. We should have enough time to grab our shit and everything."

Stark nodded and looked to us, "All right, let's go."

Loki nodded and placed one hand on Stark's and I's shoulders, and in the blink of an eye we were in Stark Tower. Stark immediately ran off to get his Iron Suit on. I ran towards my room and threw on my black armor, strapping on my throwing knives and quickly running out into the hall. I met Loki outside of my room, both of us decked out in our full gear. I ran into the rooms of the other Avengers, grabbing as much gear as I could carry and handing some of it to Loki when I couldn't quite hold all of it. When we had everything, we immediately made our way back to the pool. Once there, we split up to hand off the gear. I tossed Clint his bow and arrows with his tricked out quiver as well as his armor. Then, I handed Natasha her suit with all of her weapons attached to it. I looked over and saw Loki tossing Steve's shield to Steve, as well as his red, white, and blue jumpsuit, then, Loki proceeded to hand Ayame's gear to her.

I covered for Clint and Natasha by launching fireballs at the Chitauri to hold them back. Stark was already whizzing around in the air and shooting small missiles at the flying aliens. One of the damn things landed beside me and swung his weapon at me. I ducked down and barely missed getting clonked in the head. While the gray creature was recovering from the swing, I kicked him in the shin and swept my leg under his foot, causing him to fall over. I showed no mercy and stabbed his neck in a killing blow with a dagger. I heard the sound of a body hitting the ground behind me and turned around in surprise. There lay another dead Chitauri at my feet, a throwing knife in the back of his head. I looked up and saw Loki looking at me in concern. I could only assume that he had killed the alien that quite possibly almost killed me. "Thanks!"

"You really should be more aware of your surroundings," Loki replied.

"I am most of the time," I countered, and then in one swift movement, I threw out three throwing knives and brought down three incoming Chitauri aliens.

He chuckled softly, "All right, I believe you for now." He then jumped back into battle. By this time, the other Avengers had all gotten their gear on and ready and started battling it out. But we would only be able to fight off the Chitauri for so long.


	31. Chapter 30

**And here's the next chapter all finished. I wrote this one while waiting for a table in Buffalo Wild Wings. XD Anyway, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC Robin.**

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We battled for hours, but it seemed like with every ten Chitauri we killed, one hundred more would take their place. We wouldn't be able to keep up this fight for much longer, and I feared that my strength was starting to severely decline. I slouched against an overturned table, my forehead dripping blood and running down my face, there were quite a few cuts and bruises on my face, arms, and legs, and pieces of my armor were torn. I was almost out of throwing knives as well and would soon have to start using only my fire as a weapon. I looked to Steve, wiping some blood away from my eyes, "We can't keep this up much longer, bro," I said, a bit out of breath from the last attack. The Chitauri were attacking in waves, just like the last time they had invaded Earth. History, it seemed, liked to repeat itself.

Steve nodded, "Yeah, I know, but there's not much we can do at the moment. We have no way of figuring out how to close the portal." He looked to Loki, "Any ideas?"

Loki shook his head, "I am afraid that I have none, at the moment."

Steve sighed, "So our only option is to keep fighting right now. You all ready for another battle?"

Loki nodded, "I am prepared. Robin?"

I sighed and brushed some dirt off of my armor, and then moved my wild hair out of my face, "As ready as I'll ever be."

"Good," Steve replied, looking up at the sky and holding up his shield up in a battle stance, "'Cause here come the bastards again."

I looked up at the big hole in the sky, and, just as Steve had pointed out, the Chitauri were once again swarming out of the big, gaping hole in the sky. It was like a nightmare had come to life with the amount of hostile aliens that were coming towards us. Each passing wave seemed to increase in number. It reminded me of those first person shooter zombie apocalypse games, except that the damn monsters could fly on their weird, alien aircraft machines and could shoot back at everyone that attacked them instead of just walking up and clawing off their faces.

I held out my hand at a group of aliens who were flying towards me, and soon, after a bit of concentration, a large stream of fire shot from my fingertips much like a flamethrower. When I lowered my hand, the Chitauri that had been hit by my attack were now on the ground, their bodies now charred corpses from the onslaught of my flames. I sighed and slumped back, a bit weaker now from the attack, it took a huge amount of concentration and energy to do such attacks. The more I used my fire for huge attacks like that, the more stress it put on my small body. I was afraid that if I didn't collapse from exhaustion, I would end up mentally snapping and wouldn't be able to tell friend from foe. It had been a long time since I had pushed myself to that point, and I did not want to start that again.

I saw a bright flash of a bright blue laser fire at me and I jumped out of the way in an attempt to dodge it. Unfortunately, my reaction was too slow. The projectile grazed the skin on my leg, and I fell over, landing awkwardly on the hard ground and letting out a strained cry of pain. Dammit! I was losing my focus and couldn't react in time. It was only a matter of time before I would end up killing myself for not paying proper attention and acting as recklessly as I have. My mind wasn't entirely in the battle, and for this I was ashamed of myself. I inspected the wound on my leg and decided that it wasn't too bad; it could've ended up worse. The armor where it was had now been torn and the skin had a minor burn on it, causing a slight, irritating and painful sensation where it had been hit. Thankfully, I was used to extreme heat, so the burn wasn't as bad as it would've been on a normal person. I tore the tattered armor away from the burn so that it wouldn't cause problems in the future.

Once I was done checking up on my leg, I stood up unsteadily, gingerly testing the leg. It hurt to walk on it, but I had to suck it up and deal with it for now. The World itself was on the line, and I couldn't afford to sit this one out because of some injury. I blinked my eyes for a bit to clear my blurry vision and looked around. A lot of the city was destroyed and in flames. The roads were torn up, cars were flying everywhere and exploding, and the citizens were running all over the place trying to flee the city before they became victims of this attack. All in all, the whole place was a mess. It was a miracle that New York hadn't fallen completely yet. I just couldn't fathom how the Chitauri managed to destroy so much in such a small amount of time. Then, I looked up at the sky and immediately had my answer. The Chitauri were enormous in number and were mercilessly relentless.

Eventually, the situation in the city became so dire that even SHIELD stepped in to help out, sending in their agents and advanced war machines to help fight off the aliens. We were becoming tired from the never ending attack, we were, after all, only human, despite our rather supernatural abilities. We had human weaknesses, we were not perfect. I had to stop fighting and dive for cover several times to get my breath back, and even Thor and Loki were getting exhausted. The battle only seemed endless from that point on. The extra help from the SHIELD Agents was extremely helpful, and we even managed to dock down the Chitauri's numbers at a faster rate with their assistance, but there were still so many of them barreling through the open portal.

I was near collapsing point at that time, reverting to using my dagger and borrowing a gun from Natasha to help fend myself off, since I was too weak to summon fire, let alone manipulate it. Thankfully, after many long hours of battling, we were reducing the numbers of the Chitauri, and I even noticed that the amounts of aliens in the swarms were gradually dwindling down in numbers. What I saw next was an utter miracle, that I hardly believed my eyes. The aliens that were left all shouted at each other in their screeching, banshee like words, their voices like nails on chalkboard, and soon, they all fled into the portal. Their numbers had greatly diminished due to our valiant efforts, and against all odds, we managed to get them to retreat.

When the last one went through the black hole, the portal collapsed itself, the sky returning to normality in a matter of mere seconds. It was almost as if there was nothing that happened, the only proof of a battle being our battered bodies and the destroyed city. We all stood there in shocked silence for a moment before Stark let out a huge whoop of joy, the rest of the people who had stayed or helped with the fight eventually joining in. I was so excited that I could've believed that all that had happened was simply an illusion before my eyes. I looked to Loki with a relieved smile on my face as I gave him a tight hug, and he chuckled softly, wrapping his arms around me in a strong embrace. We were all so relieved that it was finally over.

Stark smiled and looked to all of us, his faceguard pulled back and his red and gold suit damaged and scratched with a few ash stains on it, "So . . . shawarma, anyone?"

Of course, we all unanimously agreed. Nothing sounded better than good, warm, traditional shawarma after as long, tiring battle. We all happily walked towards our favorite shawarma joint, the one that we had eaten at after our first battle as a team. Loki, however, hung back, not walking after us. Stark and I stopped walking, looking back at him in confusion, the others eventually stopping and looking back as well. "Why'd you stop, Reindeer Games?" Stark asked.

Loki sighed, "Your little shawarma tradition is for team members, is it not?"

Stark stared at him, "And your point is?"

Loki looked at him in surprise, "I do not think I am part of the team. . ."

Stark smiled, "Are you crazy? Of course you are! We let you join, didn't we? Besides, you helped us out a lot for this fight, I think you've earned some shawarma." What I saw next pretty much made my whole week, and the week after that, and even the week after that. All of the Avengers nodded, including Natasha, Clint, and Steve, the ones who hadn't really talked or associated with Loki before now. It seemed like they were finally starting to fully accept him, which made my heart practically sing in joy.

Loki smiled and chuckled softly, "Well, if you insist." He walked over to us and took his place beside me before we all headed towards the shawarma joint. A group of battered heroes were finally taking a rest after the long battle. It was funny, the first time we ate shawarma as a team was after we had beaten Loki, but now, the God of Mischief himself was sitting with us and sharing our little tradition. It was funny how the world worked like that.


	32. Chapter 31

**Well, like every story, this one has to end as well. It was fun writing this, and I want to thank all of you for reading it all the way through and taking the time to review or favorite or follow or just even comment on it in your head.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC Robin.**

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After our shawarma, we had all headed back to Stark Tower to get our things ready. After all, not everyone lived in Stark Tower, most of us stayed there only during emergencies, or even for little team vacations. I stood outside of the building, staring at the carnage surrounding the area and the destroyed landscape before me. It was going to take a long while before the city became itself again, and a lot of stores and businesses would be closed until their respective buildings were repaired. Even my favorite ice cream shop got destroyed. I sighed sadly; I wouldn't be having my stress-reliever ice cream for a while. Thankfully, the damage wouldn't be permanent. Loki had soon joined me, standing beside me and chuckling softly, "Still want that ruined city picture?"

I looked at him in confusion for a moment before realizing that he was referring to the time I had wanted a picture of a destroyed New York the first time the Chitauri had attacked us. That seemed so long ago now, and we had come a long way since then. I giggled, "Nah, I'm good," I looked once again to the city before me, "They really did a number on this place, huh?"

He nodded, "Yes, indeed they did. But I fear that this was only a warning. They will return eventually, better equipped to fight us."

"And when they do," I replied, "we'll be ready for them, won't we?"

"Yes."

"Besides," I added with a sly grin, "after how badly they got their asses kicked today, I don't think they'll even dare to show their faces around here for a long time."

Loki chuckled and smiled at me, "Indeed. We showed them not to mess with us." He wrapped an arm around my shoulders, "The others are getting ready to depart. Shall we see them off?"

I nodded, "Sure," and then I added with a sigh, "but now that Natasha's leaving, I won't have a sparring buddy."

He chuckled, "Do not worry, she will be back."

"But we'll never know when," I replied before we headed over to where the others had gathered. Clint and Natasha already had their bags in her black car and they were just getting ready to head out. Natasha noticed me and waved. I walked over to her, "Safe travels," I said when I was in front of her and Clint.

She nodded, "Thanks."

"Where are you headed?"

"We're going to the SHIELD Headquarters before we get sent on another mission," Clint said, "besides, we still have to tell Fury about the new Avenger," he gestured subtly at Loki.

"Good luck with that," I said, "you never know how he'll react."

"Shouldn't be too bad," Natasha said, "A lot of people had witnessed him help us out with the battle."

"True," I replied, "Just promise me one thing."

"What?"

"Next time you go on a super awesome spy mission, kick a ton of ass for me."

Natasha and Clint laughed. "Can do, Robin," Natasha said after she finished her laugh. They then waved one last good bye to us before getting in their car and driving away.

I headed over to Bruce, "How about you, big guy?" I inquired, "Where are you going next?"

Bruce smiled, "Actually, I'll be staying at the tower for a while longer. I managed to salvage one of the Chitauri weapons after the battle. Stark and I will be researching it in the labs for a while and hopefully we'll be able to figure out how to locate their magic so that we'll be prepared the next time something like this happens."

I nodded, "Sounds good, dude."

I looked over to Thor when I heard him speak, "Shall we head back to Asgard, brother?"

Loki looked up, "What?"

"We must tell Father of your glorious deed. There shall be a feast for you indeed," Thor said heartily.

Loki was silent in thought for a while. I sighed and looked at the ground sadly. Of course he'd go back to Asgard. He wouldn't leave as a prisoner, but as a hero. He'd get the recognition he's always wanted and he would have a happy life in his old home. Of course, I was happy for him, don't get me wrong, but I didn't want him to leave. So far, after this whole hectic fiasco, he was the best thing that had ever happened to me. Loki finally spoke up, "That sounds great but," I looked up at him when he had paused and found him staring at me, "I think I'll stay here on Midgard for a while," he finished. I couldn't help but look at him in surprise for a bit before smiling brightly at him.

Thor glanced at me and then looked back to Loki, chuckling softly, "Very well. Farewell, my friends." We all waved good bye to Thor before he vanished in a brief flash of light, well on his way back to his home.

Loki spoke up after Thor had left, "I will need a place to stay for a while."

"That's no problem," Stark said, "You already have your own room in Stark Tower, now."

"But if you don't want to stay there," I said, butting in on the conversation, "Steve and I have a guest room at our house."

"Hey, that's my room!" Ayame protested.

"Oh right, forgot about that." I looked to Stark and grinned, "Wanna switch house guests?"

"Hey!" Ayame exclaimed.

I laughed, and the others had joined in a bit, "Only joking, girly!" I said.

"I thought we said sisters before misters," she replied with a faked pout.

"Well, that was before I met a really sexy mister," I said quietly.

Loki chuckled, "I can just stay at Stark Tower."

I smiled, "Oh, all right, but be prepared for daily visits from this psycho," I pointed to myself for emphasis.

He grinned, "I shall look forward to them."

"Wait a minute!" Ayame exclaimed suddenly, "Robby, you promised me that you'd ask Thor to take me with him the next time he went to Asgard!"

I widened my eyes. After all that had happened, I completely forgot about that promise. "Oh, sorry, forgot about that! Next time. Next time I will. Remind me to."

"Dammit! I was so looking forward to seeing that rainbow bridge, too!"

All of the Avengers that were left laughed before we all said our temporary good byes and headed our separate ways. After so many exciting and stressful months, it was good to be finally heading home for a well deserved rest.

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**Thank you all for reading! I'll have the first chapter for my next fanfiction up hopefully soon. It's going to be a prequel to this current one, and I'm still trying to figure out a title for it. I always have trouble with that. XD**


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